Children of the Underworld
by Asilda
Summary: Alliance AU. Sequel to Breaking the Gods. With Nico's soul at stake, Percy takes a risk and reveals all that they've been hiding to Annabeth, Thalia, and Jason. United with the Kanes, a desperate search begins, but no one can foresee where it will take them, or what they'll find along the way.
1. Chapter 1

Percy Jackson was in over his head. More so than usual.

He was sitting on the roof of Brooklyn House, with a Roman demigod who, by all rights, was supposed to be his mortal enemy, and his cousin, whose soul was currently lost, and whose body was being controlled by an Egyptian god, while the Egyptian apocalypse was currently in progress. And he was about to meet up with his girlfriend, who he'd been hiding things from for over a year, and the Roman demigod's sister, who was Thalia. Neither of those was going to improve this already volatile situation.

Brooklyn House was the only place he'd thought safe for this meeting. The defenses that the Egyptian magicians had put on it would keep the Greek monsters away too. The only other places he knew of that four children of the Big Three could possibly have met safely were on Mt. Olympus, at Camp Half-Blood, or at this other Roman Camp Jason had mentioned. None of those were even options, so Brooklyn House had to do.

Jason was pacing nervously. Static sparks were actually popping off him as he walked. In contrast, Nico, or rather Anubis, who was possessing Nico, sat perfectly still. His face was serene, which was an expression that the real Nico had never managed to pull off. It made Percy want to go over and strangle Anubis for this fakery, but that would only hurt Nico in the end. He'd need a body when they got his soul back, so Percy couldn't damage the one Anubis was using.

"Shouldn't they be here by now?" asked Jason, looking at Percy with a sick expression on his face.

It was the fifth time he'd asked that in the past ten minutes, and though Percy sympathized with the guy, he was starting to lose patience.

"Blackjack will get them here safely," he said through gritted teeth. "Trust me on this."

Jason wrung his hands. "Sorry Percy. I just . . . I don't know . . ."

"I get it." Percy crossed the roof to put a hand on his shoulder and got shocked for his efforts. "Ah!"

"Sorry!" said Jason. He backed away a safe distance. "Sorry."

"Don't sweat it," said Percy. "Thalia will get here safely. Worry about anyone foolish enough to attack her if you've got to worry."

Jason stared at the skyline and shook his head. "I always wondered what happened to her. I thought she was dead, or sometimes that she might not have existed at all. I never thought I'd see her again. I don't even know what to do now. What if she hates me?"

Percy wanted to laugh, but any sense of joy or mirth had left him when he'd learned that Anubis had lost Nico's soul. He tried to smile though, for Jason's sake. "She won't."

"But I'm Roman! She's Greek! And according to Nico, we've had this Soc-Greaser rivalry thing going on for thousands of years!" said Jason desperately. "What if we can't get past it?"

Percy grabbed his shoulder again, and this time held on despite the jolt of electricity that traveled through his body. He was pretty sure that his hair was standing on end, but didn't care. What he had to say was too important to worry about trivial matters. "We will get past it. I know we will. We're a family. So trust me, cousin. Everything's going to be alright."

A hopeful smile crossed Jason's face. Then it wavered. "You know . . . we're not really family."

"The heck we're not," said Percy, unable to keep a bit of anger out of his voice.

"You know as well as I do that gods don't have DNA," said Jason.

"Family's not about DNA," said Percy firmly. "It's about bonds, and being there for each other. Nico's as good as a brother to me. Thalia's more than a friend, more like a real cousin. And I promise you, she's going to love you."

It felt weird to use the words 'love' and 'Thalia' in the same sentence, but Percy didn't doubt it was true. You only had to look at the new family Thalia had put together for herself after running away from home, and how fiercely she protected them to know how important family was to her. Percy didn't know how she had coped when Jason was taken from her, but guessed that it hadn't been well. It might have even been the trigger that caused her to finally run away from home. There wasn't a single doubt in his mind that she would want Jason back, and gods help anyone who stood in her way.

Jason took a deep breath and shuffled his feet awkwardly. Percy withdrew his hand, hoping he hadn't overstepped any boundaries. Jason may be his cousin, but the guy was pretty much a stranger to him. He wanted to get along with him badly, though, and not just because the fate of the world might depend on it. Jason was one of the few people in the world who understood what it was like to be the son of one of the Big Three, and from what Percy knew about him, he was a good guy. He'd stormed that torture-camp masquerading as a school to rescue Nico all by himself. When Nico's heart had been stopped, and Percy and Jason had to give him CPR, he'd kept his head. He'd been the one to save Nico . . . more or less. But Percy knew a hero when he saw one, and Jason definitely was one. He wanted to be friends with the Roman demigod. No. He wanted Jason as his cousin.

"Thanks," said Jason finally. "I just . . . You know that feeling you get before battle?"

"When you're imagining everything that can go wrong?" asked Percy.

"And you feel like you'll be sick, so you shove all those thoughts aside –"

"And refuse to let anything show through but confidence?"

"Exactly!" laughed Jason nervously. "I feel like that right now, except I'm not doing so good at faking confidence."

"Then I'll have to have enough for both of us," said Percy.

"This waiting's going to kill me," said Jason, but he laughed again, and didn't resume pacing. "Nico sure seems calm, considering we're fooling around with forces that could trigger a civil war."

"Nico is . . ." _Currently not the one occupying his body. Used to dealing with a lot screwier things than impending civil wars. Going to be upset about missing new CSI episodes if his soul is lost too long. _There were many ways that Percy could have answered that better than he did. ". . . a pretty calm guy. Okay, not usually. I think he's just tired right now. You know what, forget everything I just said. I don't . . . I don't want to lie or sow any distrust between us, and . . . I'll explain everything when Thalia and Annabeth get here."

Jason blinked at him then shrugged. "Do you think Nico's hurt or something?"

Percy resisted the temptation to pray or swear to any of the gods. "Let's go with 'or something.'"

"If he's hurt we need to do something," said Jason. "Get him some more unicorn draught or a hospital, though a hospital might be disastrous if they try to take blood samples –"

"He's not that kind of hurt," said Percy. "And he's going to be okay, but we're going to need Annabeth's and Thalia's help."

Jason considered his words for a moment and finally nodded. "I trust you. Nico trusts you too, you know. When he told me about you his voice took on an almost reverent tone. He told me you were his cousin as well as his best friend."

There was a tightness in Percy's throat when he heard that. He glanced across the roof at Nico. No, at Anubis who was just wearing Nico's face. For a second he felt sick.

"He also called you 'Hurricane Percy,'" said Jason, his tone lightening. "Personally, I think that's a pretty good name for you."

Percy forced himself to smile. "You're definitely Thalia's brother. That's exactly the kind of thing she would say to get on my nerves."

"Hey, it's a good name. Almost like a title. Or a superhero name."

Percy blanched at that. "Do us both a favor and do not mention superheroes in front of Nico."

"Why?" Jason asked.

"Because if you do, he'll get ideas, and the next thing you know, he'll be blackmailing you into going to Comic Con dressed as Thor."

Jason's eyebrows knitted together. "You said it would be a favor to us both. Who do you think he'd make you go as? Or has he already made you go as someone?"

"I'd tell you, but you'd lose all respect for me," said Percy.

"Don't tell me, he made you go as Namor!"

"I don't know who that is."

"Aquaman then?" laughed Jason and Percy turned away flushing with embarrasment. "Ha! It was Aquaman. Awesome!"

"He made your sister go as Wonder Woman," said Percy. "While he went as Batman."

Jason laughed and shook his head. "Somehow that's so fitting. You guys . . . you sound like you have lots of fun together."

Percy paused to think that over. Jason was right, he realized. Most of the time, Percy tended to remember the bad times. The stressful situations and the dangers that came with their mere existence. The fights and the pain. But when he thought about it, the fun times and light moments more than balanced out the bad. "We'll have even more now that you're joining the party," he promised Jason.

Before the Roman demigod could respond, a pegasus's neighing split the air. They turned toward the harbor and saw two of the winged horses heading right toward them.

"Is that -"

"Yeah," said Percy. "And, uh, you better let me make introductions before you try to hug Thalia or anything. Not sure if you would have, but she's not likely to take it well until she knows who you are. Hunter of Artemis and all. The no dating policy and whatnot."

"Right." Jason didn't sound so good, even on that one syllable. Percy turned toward him and frowned, seeing that the Roman demigod looked rather green.

"Are you alright, dude?"

"Gods . . . I feel like a total pansy, but I think I might be sick."

Percy put a hand on his shoulder and ignored the shock he got again. "Just breathe, man."

Blackjack and Porkpie reached the roof and lit down on it, and Annabeth and Thalia slid off their sides. They strode forward, confusion and concern in their eyes. Percy saw them glance at Jason. Annabeth gave him a onceover, then dismissed him. Thalia started to look away, then her head snapped back to the blonde boy and her eyes slowly widened.

"Percy, what's going on?" asked Annabeth. "Is everything alright?"

Thalia opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but a strangled sound was all that came out of her mouth. The noise caught Annabeth's attention, and she looked back at her friend, then followed her gaze back to Jason. Her gray eyes narrowed dangerously and her hand fell to her dagger hilt.  
"Whose this?" demanded Annabeth.

"He's one of the reasons I asked you guys to come here tonight," said Percy, pressing his hand on Jason's back and guiding him forward toward Thalia a few steps. "Thalia, this –"

"Thalia," croaked Jason, stepping forward of his own volition now. "I don't . . . I don't know how to tell you this, but . . . I'm Jason. I'm your brother."

For a moment all Thalia could do was stare. Then she hurried forward and embraced her little brother. There was a loud crackle of electricity, like a miniature thunderclap, and Percy, standing close by, was blown backwards, off his feet.

Annabeth hurried to his side, now looking alarmed and confused. Neither of the Grace siblings even seemed to notice. Thalia had pulled back an arm's length, though she still held onto her brother tightly, her eyes taking in every detail about his face.

"It is you," she said, her voice surprisingly huskly. "Thank Artemis. It's you."

"Hey Sissy," said Jason.

Percy raised an eyebrow. Thalia had once allowed herself to be called 'Sissy?' He filed this away to us later for blackmail and let Annabeth help him back to his feet.

"What's going on?" Annabeth asked.

"Long story short, Nico found Thalia's long lost brother," said Percy. He wrapped an arm around Annabeth's waist and guided her toward where Nico, no, Anubis, was sitting, watching the proceedings with expressionless eyes. "Let's give them a few minutes. I think they need it."

"I don't think it's safe for us to be here, Percy," said Annabeth, looking around nervously. "You should have had this reunion at Camp Half-Blood. Four kids of the Big Three in one place? We're asking for a horde of monsters to come calling."

"This place is protected," Percy told her. "By Egyptian magic. Some of Nico's House of Life friends –"

"The House of Life are not our friends," hissed Annabeth.

Percy sighed. "This is a really, really long story. I have some serious explaining to do to you and Thalia both, and I owe you a huge apology. A lot of huge apologies. I haven't been completely honest with you about some things, and I am so, so, sorry. But you have to believe me –"

"Did you cheat on me?" Annabeth asked, looking horrified and stricken.

"What? No! Never!" said Percy quickly. "I swear on the Styx, no! The stuff I lied to you about . . . Thalia too . . . it was to try and protect people. Nico, mainly, but the rest of the world would have been in danger too. I'm not doing a very good job of explaining, am I?"

"No," said Annabeth, but she looked much calmer now, and there was relief in her eyes. "You're really not. Why don't you start at the beginning?"

"I will," promised Percy. "But let me wait until Thalia and Jason are ready. It's a very long and complicated story, and they need to hear it too."

* * *

Thalia usually prided herself on keeping her emotions in check. All of them but anger at least. The tears that were stinging her eyes now felt foreign and strange to her.

"I've missed you," said Jason, his voice breaking midsentence.

"I missed you too. I thought you were dead," said Thalia.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Don't apologize, dummy," said Thalia. She hugged him again. "It's not your fault. None of it. But where have you been? Gods, I've looked everywhere for you."

"I've been at Camp Jupiter," Jason told her.

"Camp Jupiter?" Thalia had never heard of it.

"The Roman demigod camp," said Jason. "Percy and Nico told me you started at Camp Half-Blood, then joined the Hunters of Artemis. I'd never heard of either before tonight."

Thalia put one hand to her head. "What is going on?"

"I don't know. I don't really care either right now. Gods, I'm sorry, I'm not usually this much of a wuss," said Jason, and Thalia could tell from his voice that he was crying, as he buried his face against her shoulder. "I'm not even sad. I'm just so glad I got my sister back. I have a family again."

_Family_.

Thalia tightened her grip on Jason and stopped blinking back her own tears. "There, there, little brother," she said huskily. "Everything's alright now. Everything's alright."

They stayed that way for a long time. Thalia didn't know how long. She forgot about her cousins and friend sitting off to the side, waiting for them to finish, forgot about everything except the boy, nearly a man now, who she held in her arms. She didn't want to let him go again, ever. Even though he'd been just a baby the last time she'd seen him, the image of the nearly grown man before her now just fit. He still had that scar. He still had that adorable smile. Gods, he even still smelled the same. Thalia would have known him anywhere.

After awhile, she stopped crying. Soon after, so did Jason. He gave her a tentative smile. She returned it whole-heartedly, and reached up to ruffle his hair, like she'd done so long ago. "Everything's alright," she told him again.

"I know," said Jason, his smile more confident now. He glanced over her shoulder. "Percy and Nico have some stuff to tell us. About this whole Greek-Roman thing. And the Egyptian magicians –"

"Egyptian magicians? You mean the House of Life?" Suddenly, Thalia was struck with realization. "Were they the ones that took you? I'll kill them. I'll kill them all –"

"No, they didn't take me," said Jason quickly. "They're Nico's friends, or family, or I don't know for sure, but they definitely had nothing to do with us being separated. I'd never even had any dealings with them before I met Nico."

"Nico isn't House of Life," said Thalia, thoroughly confused now.

"Are you sure? Or maybe he's not House of Life, but he's definitely Egyptian –"

"No, Nico's Italian. I remember him bemoaning this fact very loudly once."

"But . . . never mind. I think we should talk with them to figure this out," said Jason.

"You're right," decided Thalia. "Those two have been hiding something for about a year now. I think it's time they told us what it was. Come on. And stay close. I don't want you getting lost again."

Thalia reached out her hand to take Jason's then froze, realizing what she'd just said, and what she was doing. She suddenly felt ridiculous. Trying to hold her younger brother's hand had been all fine and well when he was two, but now? Now he was her age! Maybe older! What had she been thinking?

She was startled out of her embarrassment when Jason took her hand. When she looked at him uncertainly, he smiled warmly. "Yes, ma'am," he told her.

Thalia laughed, though more tears sprang to her eyes as she led her little brother over to Annabeth and their cousins. It was time to find out what all this was about.

* * *

"You guys good?" asked Percy when Thalia and Jason came over, hand in hand. They looked like they were OK, if you could see past their red eyes.

"Yeah," they said in unison, then looked at each other and smiled.

"Better than I've been in a long time," said Thalia.

"Likewise," agreed Jason.

"Alright, then," said Percy. "Explanation time, I guess."

He glanced around, trying to decide where to begin.

"I guess I'll start with the easier part first. Or at least the part that no one's going to get mad at Nico and me for. Annabeth, this is Jason Grace, by the way. Son of Jupiter, and Thalia's brother. Jason, my girlfriend, Annabeth, daughter of Athena."

Annabeth looked at Jason suspiciously. "A son of Jupiter?"

Jason looked equally troubled by Annabeth. "A daughter of Athena?"

"There are two camps of demigods," Anubis spoke up. "One Greek, one Roman. Your gods have kept the two factions separate, because whenever you meet, disaster arises. Your kind were responsible for the American Civil War."

Percy glared at him. "Thank you, Mr. Optimism."

"I'm only telling it how it is. There is a reason your gods have not allowed you all to meet."

"They can take their reason and screw it," snapped Thalia. "No one's taking my brother from me again."

Jason nodded his agreement. "We're staying together now."

Percy too agreed. "We need to stand together now. We're stronger as a family, and we've got a problem on our hands that I think will need the best minds from all factions involved to solve. And by that I mean us Greeks, the Romans . . . and the Egyptians as well."

As though on cue, the rooftop door opened, and Carter and Sadie came out. They looked haggard from the events of the night that the Brooklyn House kids had gone through. Sadie's hands were bandaged, and Carter had dark circles under his eyes.

"You guys again?" Annabeth asked, looking at them in surprise. "What are you . . . oh . . . Hades." Her mind seemed to make the right connections from the information she had. "You guys are House of Life!"

"What?!" demanded Thalia. "Then how did they get into Camp Half-Blood way back when? They shouldn't have made it through the borders!"

"Except that they got a direct invitation . . . Kind of. Brendan and Clarisse brought them through the borders in that chariot, which I guess counts as an invitation. Or something," said Percy. "We're kind of getting ahead of things. I think I should start back at the beginning. Maybe we should sit down. Carter and Sadie should, at least. You guys look about ready to fall over. You okay?"

"We all made it back alive," said Sadie. She rubbed her eyes. "That's more than the Texas Nome can say."

They all sat down. Thalia and Annabeth were regarding Sadie and Carter with suspicion. Jason just looked confused.

"It started last spring," said Percy. "Annabeth, you remember that night I had the dream that Nico was in trouble, and was trying to convince you and Chiron that he needed help? It was right before the gods started seeing to it that we were warned about the House of Life."

"I remember," said Annabeth. "Hades thought Nico had been kidnapped by the House of Life, but it turned out to be a false alarm."

"Not really," said Percy. "The situation just turned out to be really complicated and . . . and . . . what's the word?"

"Volatile," supplied Anubis.

"Yeah, that," agreed Percy. "See, we couldn't tell Hades or any of our other gods the truth about what happened, without risking a war, either between the Greek and Egyptian pantheons, or all Greek demigods and the House of Life."

"So what really happened?" asked Thalia.

"What happened that night was that Carter and I ran into Nico, purely by chance, in Central Park," said Sadie. "We were running from some House of Life agents who were after us, because . . . I guess we have to back up even more to explain that."

"The Christmas before last, Apophis, the Egyptian chaos god, started rising," said Carter. "To counter him, the five most powerful Egyptian gods were broken free from the relics that the House of Life had sealed them away in. They were Osiris, Isis, Horus, Set, and Nephthys. Sadie and I were possessed by Isis and Horus, respectively. Our father was possessed by Osiris, our uncle by Set, and my kind-of girlfriend by Nephthys."

"That would be Zia," added Anubis. "Jason met her in San Francisco."

"We managed to delay his first return attempt," said Carter. "But the price was that the House of Life thought we were fugitives, for using the powers of the gods and following the old paths. While we tried to find more kids with the blood of the pharaohs to join our fight against Apophis, they tried to stop us. We were running from two of their agents; Aziza and Hakim, when we ran into Nico."

"Very literally in my case," said Sadie. "I actually landed right on top of him."

"Aziza and Hakim thought that he was a magician who we'd recruited, and tried to scare him off," said Carter. "They made it clear that they were planning to kill Sadie and I. Nico didn't know us at all then, but I guess you know how he would have felt about a couple of adults planning to kill a couple of kids."

"Oh gods, what did he do?" asked Annabeth. "Did he open a chasm to Hades?"

"Yeah. But he didn't kill them there. Just their jackal familiar," said Carter. "He made it clear that he wasn't going to stand by and let them kill us. So they attacked him. Aziza used the Ribbons of Hathor on him, which are a life based attack. On a death god's son . . ."

"Gods," said Annabeth. "That could have killed him."

"I'm not sure it didn't," said Sadie, glancing at Nico/Anubis.

"Nico's soul was somehow sent to the Egyptian Underworld," said Carter. "He met Anubis there. From what I understand, Anubis was both surprised and annoyed by his appearance."

Anubis nodded.

"Nico tried to shadow travel out, but when he did, the attempt hurt him. Anubis tried to steady him, but when he touched him, something happened. Their souls fused. Anubis inadvertently possessed Nico, the same way Horus and Isis deliberately possessed Sadie and I. But Anubis found that he couldn't unpossess him," said Carter.

"What?" asked Thalia and Annabeth in unison.

"But that's impossible!" said Annabeth. "It's in all the old information we have! The Egyptian gods cannot take demigods as hosts! Even trying usually kills us!"

"I know it should have been impossible," said Anubis. "But somehow it happened."

"Nico was unconscious for awhile after that," said Percy. "Sadie and Carter took him back with them and took care of him. I went searching for him. When I found him, we had a bit of a misunderstanding at first. But eventually we worked things out and realized that we weren't enemies. But right as we figured that out, Aziza and Hakim arrived and attacked us. Nothing like a common enemy to bring allies together."

"We had a nice, long, harrowing adventure, on which Aziza kept trying to kill or kidnap us, and eventually did kidnap Nico and I," said Sadie. "Hades had made his demands of the House of Life by then, you see. Hand over his son and the ones who kidnapped him or everyone dies. But I wasn't too keen on being used as a scapegoat and dying, and we couldn't let Hades know that Nico was hosting Anubis, or there still would have been war."

"Percy, Bast, and I launched an attack on the First Nome. That's the House of Life's headquarters. We freed Nico and Sadie –"

Sadie coughed.

"Okay, they freed themselves," amended Carter. "But we helped them escape. Then . . . well . . ."

"We bluffed like hell and somehow managed to trick Hades into not realizing Nico was possessed by Anubis," said Sadie.

"So that misadventure ended with us demigods being alerted to the House of Life as potential enemies, but without us going to war with them," said Percy. "Nico and I became friends with Sadie and Carter. We didn't manage to figure out a way to unpossess Nico, we still haven't actually, but Nico figured out how to cope with it, and started learning Egyptian magic. For awhile, things were okay, until the next time things got mixed between the Greeks and Egyptians. That was when Sadie and Carter unwittingly got taken to Camp Half-Blood."

"Again, we were running for our lives," said Sadie. "We stumbled upon one of your extraction teams being attacked by a hellhound."

"It's always hellhounds," muttered Jason.

"We helped the demigods out, then used them as a means of escape," continued Carter. "Got taken to camp, and immediately started working on how to get out of there. That was when the Hunters showed up, and those murders started happening. You know how the story went."

"Actually, I don't," said Jason.

"One of the other demigods brought in by the extraction team, a little girl named Maya, was a former student at Heart of Liberty," said Anubis. "She killed a daughter of Aphrodite during a capture the flag game. But no one knew it was her at the time. That ignited tensions between the campers and the Hunters. They're rivals at the best of times, and always on slightly worse terms with the children of Aphrodite. She was killed by an arrow stabbed into her back. You can guess how it looked."

"Like a Hunter killed her?"

"Nico wasn't able to get Sadie and Carter out that night. But the next morning, a Hunter was killed. That made the situation worse. If anyone discovered they were Egyptian magicians, suspicion would have immediately fallen upon then," said Percy. "But I guess I should point out that Chiron figured out the truth about them at some point. But he trusted Nico's judgment of them and didn't out them or have them arrested or anything."

"Nico was the one who figured out who the killer really was. Just in time, actually. She tried to kill Sadie. Nico stopped her just in time," remembered Annabeth.

"And after that, Nico got Sadie and Carter out of camp, now that they were no longer suspects and wouldn't be hunted down," said Percy. "He had a few other misadventures with the Brooklyn House kids, that didn't end in disaster. I even helped out on occasion when they needed it."

"And saved our bacon," added Carter. "We would have all been slaughtered if not for you and Nico."

Percy shrugged off the praise modestly. "We've tried to figure out ways to separate Nico's soul from Anubis's but so far haven't managed to find a way."

"Then, a week or so ago, Nico, Felix, and I were on a trip to some geeky game shop when we ran into Piers, a son of Kratos who'd been at that bloody school and had the weird blue eyes," said Sadie. "Nico took news of that fruitloop to his camp, blah, blah, blah, ended up infiltrating the school, and apparently met you there, Roman boy. And let me tell you, my last experience with Romans was not so good –"

"But we're not dwelling on that," said Carter. "Those were zombie-ghost Romans, which Jason here is clearly not."

"We need to leave all our differences and prejudices aside," said Percy sternly. "Right now it doesn't matter if you're Greek, Roman, or Egyptian. We are all in very deep trouble because of the after effects of this last mission that Nico and Jason were on."

"But the mission was a success," protested Jason.

"Officially, and as far as both our camps are concerned, yes," said Percy, "but there's something you don't know." He looked at Anubis.

"Before long, we'll be back where we were before, trying to keep Hades from starting a war with the Egyptian pantheon," said Anubis. "We've managed to hide the fact that our souls were fused so far. But now we have a bigger problem, and one that Hades won't fail to notice next time he sees Nico. Nico is gone."

Everyone stared.

"Gone? What do you mean he's 'gone?'" demanded Sadie.

"Anubis is the one in control right now," said Percy wearily. "And Nico's soul and consciousness are missing."

"I don't understand," said Jason, looking sick. "He's not . . . is he dead?"

"No. At least I don't think so," said Anubis. "I don't know what happened to him."

"I don't believe this!" Annabeth stood up and threw her hands up. "This – out of everything that could possibly - This is unbelievable!" She rounded on Percy. "How could you let this happen?"

Percy didn't even try to deny the blame. "I'm sorry."

"It wasn't his fault," Anubis spoke up for him. "The blame is mine."

"When did this happen? How long have you been Anubis?" asked Jason, looking supremely unsettled.

"Since that machine exploded," said Anubis.

"Then it's my fault," realized Jason. "Nico got hit by that blast because he was saving me. If he hadn't –"

"Then you would have been hit?" asked Thalia, looking at him in horror at the thought. Percy could almost hear her thoughts. She'd almost lost Jason before she even got him back.

"What machine was this?" asked Sadie. "How could an explosion make Anubis lose Nico's soul?"

"It was a machine that was suppressing our demigod powers somehow," said Jason. He shook his head then put his hands up to either temple and shook his head. "I tried to unplug it and it started sucking out my powers. It was the worst feeling in the world, like my soul was being drug right out of me. Then Nico saved me. He sliced through the cord with his Stygian iron sword. Then the machine exploded, the crystal part of it, and he shielded me from it with his own body. The shards that hit me, they burned so badly I could barely think. But Nico got hit with so many more of them than me. I would never have managed to pull all those shards out of him if his blood hadn't burnt them away. And then I saw he wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse. Gods . . ."

"That's when I entered, I think," said Percy when Jason's voice broke. "And Jason managed to restart Nico's heart . . . scarab thing."

"What?" asked Thalia.

Percy looked at Anubis who pulled up his shirt to show the black stone scarab that had replaced his heart. "That happened when Nico first got his soul fused to Anubis's. We don't know how or why. There is a prophecy that mentions it. Do you guys know who the Mad Oracle was?"

"Cassandra?" asked Jason. "The Mad Oracle?"

"Her prophecies can't be trusted," said Annabeth immediately. "She was called the 'Mad Oracle' for a reason."

"Because she tried to fuse Egyptian and Greek magics," said Sadie. "She tried to host your oracle and a minor Egyptian goddess at the same time and it was like combining AC and DC currents and blew up in her face."

"So how do we get Nico's soul back?" demanded Jason. "Does the prophecy say?"

"It doesn't mention anything about Nico losing his soul," said Carter. "This . . . Good Ra, this is not . . ."

"This is why I called everyone here together," said Percy. "Because I have the feeling we're going to need everyone's help for this. We've got to find out where Nico's soul is, and how to get it back before Hades sends him a summons. I don't know how long that's going to be. But if he finds out that Nico's soul is gone, and his body is possessed by Anubis, then one way or another, there's going to be war."

"And we can't afford that, now of all times," said Carter. "Apophis is about to make his move."

"Yeah, the Egyptians have an apocalypse going on this weekend," said Percy.

"We have it covered," growled Sadie.

"Mostly," said Carter. "At the very least, we have a contingency plan."

"What would that be?" asked Percy.

"A last ditch effort that will probably get the two of us killed," said Sadie.

"Don't get killed," snapped Annabeth. "We're going to need you for the Egyptian side of this mess. I don't know enough to formulate a plan yet, but I know that at least."

Percy breathed a shaky sigh of relief. Annabeth was on board. She'd been the one he needed with him the most. Not just because she was his best friend and girlfriend, and he was better for her presence in his life, but because her planning skills would be invaluable in this. If anyone could figure this out it was her.

His eyes skimmed over Sadie and Carter, who he knew would be in on this no matter what. They were almost as close to Nico as he was. As long as they lived, they would be there for him. His gaze then settled on Thalia and Jason. The children of the king of the gods. They could do this without them, Percy was sure. But he didn't want to. They were stronger as a family. And they needed a united front now. Camp Half-Blood. Camp Jupiter. The Hunters of Artemis. And the House of Life.

As though they felt his gaze on them, both Grace siblings looked up.

"Are you with us?" asked Percy, and gave a silent prayer to Hestia.

They looked at each other, and saw their answer mirrored in the other's face.

"Of course," said Jason. "Nico saved my life. My soul, actually. That would have been me if he hadn't saved me. I'll do whatever I can to save him now."

"Me too," said Thalia. "He found my brother for me. And was there to save him when I couldn't be. I owe him. And he's my cousin too."

"Should we all put our hands in the middle and shout 'Go team!' now?" asked Sadie.

"Let's skip that and get this mission started," said Annabeth coolly. "First order of business is this Egyptian apocalypse. There's no point in getting Nico's soul back for him if there's not going to be a world for him to live in."

"Leave the Apophis to us," said Sadie.

Annabeth turned and looked at Percy, asking a silent question.

He nodded at her. "They're like the Egyptian equivalent of us. Except, you know, brother and sister instead of dating like us. Or just being best friends, like we were most of our adventures. Which is not to say they're not best friends too, but –"

"You should shut up for awhile, Percy," advised Thalia, taking note of Annabeth's stormy expression.

Percy winced. He'd known Annabeth wouldn't appreciate his deceptions. So he'd known this was coming. They've have to talk about this later, he knew, but for now this was what they had to do. Plan stuff out. Annabeth was doing exactly what he needed her to do. Angry with him or not, she was always there for him. But he had the feeling that the longer they put their talk off the worse it was going to turn out for him. Nothing he could do about that now.

"Right. Briefly put, these guys are the best Egyptian magicians the world has to offer," said Percy. "They've had the fate of the world in their hands before, and we're all still here. If anyone can beat the chaos snake, it'll be them."

"Very high praise from the greatest Greek hero," noted Thalia, then added cockily, "aside from yours truly. I'd say we can trust them."

"You can," said Anubis.

"Alright," said Annabeth. "We'll leave the apocalypse to you. Percy, you're the only other one of us who knows anything about this Egyptian stuff, aside from Nico. I mean Anubis now. Whatever. He doesn't count."

"Thanks so much," muttered Anubis.

"Shut up." Annabeth glared at him.

"Annabeth!" said Percy.

"I'll work with him, but that doesn't mean I have to like him!" snapped Annabeth. "Nico was my friend too, Percy! I don't like looking at him and seeing someone else looking back at me through his eyes!"

Percy was shocked to see that there were actually tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry," he said quickly.

"For whatever it's worth, so am I," said Anubis huskily. "Nico was my friend too. He was like my brother. I would never intentionally hurt him. Or steal his life."

"The plan," said Annabeth, snapping her head up again. "We just need to focus on the plan. So . . . Percy, you're on loan to Sadie and Carter. You seem to have enough background with them to be able to work with them. If they need extra muscle, you're their go-to guy."

Percy couldn't help but wonder if she'd assigned him to work with the Kanes because she didn't want to look at him at the moment. But her decision did make the most sense. He could see why she wanted the Kanes to have backup in the form of someone she trusted. And honestly he was glad to be there for them.

"Jason, I assume you'll need to be reporting back to your camp?" asked Annabeth.

"Yes. Kind of. Technically, I'm on furlough. Vacation. We couldn't officially place anymore agents in the school, so I came to do what little I could. But they're going to want to know how this all went down."

"You'll be cleanup and research on the Roman end of things then," said Annabeth. "I'll be doing the same in the Greek camp. We need to search whatever libraries or scroll collections we have access to and find out anything about this that we can. Also, we'll need information from the Heart of Liberty school –"

"I copied some files," said Anubis. "Or at least Nico did, using Jason's camera."

"I forgot about that," admitted Jason.

"There are computers here. We can access the pictures here so you each have copies," said Anubis.

"I also want that soul sucking machine," said Annabeth. "If we figure out how it works that could be the key to reversing it. Maybe. I need more information to know for sure. Anubis, you have access to Nico's shadow travel powers?"

"Yes. Though my control and skill are not as good as his."

"Get me that machine then. I don't care if you have to bring it piece by piece, we need it here."

"He can use his Duat storage locker to get it all here at once," said Sadie.

"That's kind of like a pocket dimension of storage that he can access," explained Carter when Annabeth gave them an inquisitive look.

"What about me?" asked Thalia. "What do you want me doing?"

"Research as well," said Annabeth. "Sorry, Thalia. But we don't have anything to go on at all, and need some kind of lead or direction. Until we have one, all we can do is search for straws to grasp at."

"I get it," said Thalia. "And I'll do whatever I can."

"We'll use Iris messages to keep in touch, of course," said Annabeth. "Or can you Egyptians not use those?"

"We've seen them, but we've never tried using them," said Sadie.

"Jason is not familiar with them either," said Anubis.

"You know, this would be much easier if you demigods could use cell phones," said Sadie.

"Well they can't, so we'll deal with it," said Carter. "So how do we make this work?"

Annabeth tapped one finger against her lips, thinking hard. "Thalia, you teach Jason how IMs work. That way all us demigods will be able to contact each other. Nico, I mean Anubis, can be our link to the Egyptians. Percy too, while he's on loan to them. Maybe we can figure something out in the meantime. But everyone has their part of the plan now. That's all we can do until we get more information."

"Where would you like the machine, Annabeth?" asked Anubis.

"I don't know," admitted Annabeth. "I'd say Camp Half-Blood, but I can't show anyone what I'm doing."

"How about here?" asked Sadie. "This place is warded and has plenty of rooms."

"Alright. Here then," said Annabeth.

"I'll go get the machine then," said Anubis. He closed his eyes and concentrated, and then was swallowed by the shadows.

"Hey, I actually don't have to go back to camp immediately," said Jason. "They're not expecting me back at any particular time, and I wouldn't be able to start researching anything until morning. Maybe . . . would it be alright if I hung out with you tonight, Thalia?"

Thalia visibly brightened. "Of course. I only just found you again. I can put up with you for at least a night before you start getting annoying. Is that all for now then, Annabeth?"

The daughter of Athena nodded. "I can't think of anything else we need to go over tonight. I should probably get back to Camp. I'll explain that mess of a mission Nico was on to Chiron, and figure out a reason for why Nico's not the one reporting back. When Nico, I mean Anubis gets back, tell him to print off those pictures. I'll pick up a copy of them tomorrow. For now, I better get back." She paused slightly and addressed the Kanes. "Good luck with your apocalypse."

"Thanks," said Sadie with a smile that wasn't particularly nice. "We'll let you know how it goes."

The Kanes headed back into the house. Thalia and Jason went to Porkpie, while Annabeth started toward Blackjack.

"Annabeth, wait," said Percy quickly.

"I'm tired Percy," said Annabeth. "This can wait."

"No, it can't," said Percy.

"It's waited this long. It can wait another day."

"No, I disagree," said Percy. "Please. I know you're angry. To some extent you have a right to be –"

"To some extent?" demanded Annabeth. "You're my boyfriend! And you've been lying to my face for months! About something this important! Then you went and messed it up this badly?"

"I'm sorry," said Percy. He didn't know what else to say? "I wasn't – There weren't . . . it was –"

"How could you not tell me the truth?" demanded Annabeth. She looked at him with angry tears in her eyes.

"I'm sorry," said Percy again. "I had to make a choice. I could either betray Nico's trust and tell you, or keep it and hide the truth from you." He paused for a second. "You might hate me for saying this, but if I had to do it again, I'd do the same thing."

"Why?" asked Annabeth. "You don't trust me?"

"I trust you," said Percy. "But it wasn't my secret to tell. And Nico's been betrayed by enough people in his life. I didn't think he deserved to have that happen again."

Annabeth looked away angrily but didn't say anything to that. Perhaps she realized the truth of it. "I would have tried to help, you know."

"I know."

"I wish you'd told me."

"I'm sorry."

"I'm still angry at you."

"I know."

"I'm going to be angry at you for awhile."

"What can I do to help you forgive me?" asked Percy.

"Stay alive. Don't get killed helping them. I'll never forgive you if you get killed," said Annabeth. "In fact I'll never speak to you again."

"I figured," said Percy. He hesitated, then said three words that always made him embarrassed and self conscious, but he felt like he owed it to Annabeth to voice them anyway. "I love you."

Annabeth turned watery eyes on him, then lunged at him. Percy was taken by surprise, but caught her in his arms, and returned the rather violent, angry kiss that Annabeth pressed onto his lips.

"I love you too," she said as she pulled back. Then she turned toward Blackjack again. "Good night."

Percy watched her go, not sure what he felt right then. Annabeth had always been a good kisser. But somehow, when angry, she turned into an amazing kisser. He didn't think it was worth it to make her angry more often, for that reason alone, but . . . damn . . .

Out the corner of his eye, he saw he had an audience. Thalia was shaking her head. Jason gave Percy a nod and a discreet thumbs-up that his sister couldn't see before climbing up onto Porkpie's back behind her.

Percy watched his friends leave then turned to go back into Brooklyn House with the Kanes.

Overall, things had gone well. And they'd get better. Percy was sure of that now. They had a good team. The best. And strongest. Children of all of the Big Three, as well as two of the world's most powerful Egyptian magicians, and Annabeth with her amazing mind. They would find a way to fix this.

* * *

But two weeks later they were no closer to finding a solution, and Percy was starting to despair.

* * *

AN:

I've been sick and in the hospital again, which was why this fic was so much later than I said it would be. I'm scrambling to save my GPA now, so I have no idea when I'll be able to update again. But don't worry, I haven't abandoned the story. I couldn't leave Nico with his soul permanently lost.

I've written Jason and Thalia's reunion a bit more emotional because Jason has his memories in this AU when he meets her. In the real storyline, he was amnesiac and only had enough memory to recognize her as his sister. Here he's been missing her for over a decade. And Thalia lost a bit of her tough façade in the face of her baby brother's tears. A little sibling's tears can do that to you.


	2. Chapter 2

2

AN: Sorry for being so long again. School and life were both keeping me busy. Thanks for your patience, and I hope you enjoy!

Warning: The rest of this fic contains spoilers for The Serpent's Shadow.

* * *

Percy had grown to hate the very sight of Nico. Not that it was really Nico he was seeing, checking up on, and sparring against. It was Anubis. Or else it was an empty shell. Percy wasn't sure which he hated more.

He stood in the door of Nico's Brooklyn House room, or the Room of Death, as Sadie had aptly nick-named it, for very good reasons. Egyptian funeral murals graced the walls, statues and gravestones cluttered up half the room, and Nico's bed was a freaking sarcophagus. Laying there on it, he really did look dead.

"Come on, Anubis," said Percy. "I don't have all night."

Not true, technically. Percy had nothing else that had to be done that night. His mother wasn't even expecting him to come home until the weekend was over. While Sally Jackson hadn't been given the full situation, she knew that Nico was in trouble, and had given Percy her blessing to do whatever he needed to save him. Not that there really was anything that Percy could do.

After that first meeting on the rooftop broke up, Percy had a few days in which he'd actually been useful. He'd stuck around with the Brooklyn House kids as chaos descended on the world. He liked the Brooklyn House kids. Even though the Egyptian apocalypse technically wasn't his fight, they never made him feel unwelcome. In fact, they liked having him on their side and looked to him as something of a general, even the older students who had a lot to prove and clearly all wanted to be in charge when Carter and Sadie were away. He supposed his performance at the siege of Brooklyn House helped him earn their respect.

When they marched off to the front lines, Percy had gone with them without a second thought. That battle had been brutal, but in the end they'd been triumphant. Things actually worked out better than Percy had dared to hope they would, but he was glad. His faith in Sadie and Carter hadn't been misplaced. He'd thought that after beating such monstrous odds, fixing the problem of Nico and Anubis had to be a cinch. He'd thought wrong.

Annabeth had been through every scroll and book in the Big House's library, and had done multiple searches on Daedalus's laptop, scouring every bit of information she could get her fingers on for even a scrap of relevant material. Zia, who'd been let in on everything, was doing the same at the First Nome. Carter paid a visit to the Greek Nome while Sadie tore apart Brooklyn House's library and used some kind of book fetching shabti to obtain other texts. Jason was using all his Roman resources on the other side of the US, and Thalia was searching everywhere in between.

Not a one of them had come up with a thing.

Percy tried to help Annabeth, but only seemed to get in her way. Things between them had been tense for awhile. They'd gradually been getting better, but Percy could still see the sting of hurt in Annabeth's eyes sometimes. Somehow he didn't things would be completely okay between them again until they managed to fix this. As long as there was a semi-living, sometimes-breathing reminder of how Percy had hid the truth from Annabeth, lying around comatose for the better part of every day, they weren't going to be able to get past this.

Anubis, at Percy's insistence, didn't walk around possessing Nico's empty shell, at least not most of the time. He had a second host now, something Percy had been surprised, and inexplicably annoyed to learn about. He hated the idea of Anubis possessing Nico, but somehow the idea of Anubis having a host other than Nico felt like he was betraying Nico. But to keep Nico's muscles from atrophying, Anubis fully possessed Nico at least a few hours every day and made sure he got at least a little exercise.

Tonight, he was sparring Percy.

Percy used to love sparring Nico. Very few beings were capable of giving him a good fight. Even with other demigods, his natural abilities as a son of one of the Big Three elevated him far beyond the average demigod. Too often, when he sparred anyone at camp, egos got in the way and if Percy wasn't under the Curse of Achilles, things would have been dangerous. Percy didn't like that feeling of knowing he'd caused a friend to lose their temper so badly they really wanted to cause him harm. Not that they could, it was just the thought that counted. Nico though could not only give Percy a run for his money but fight with a cool head. True, he fought just this side of dirty (against Percy. Against enemies he hopped right over that line) but that was something Percy had not only come to expect from him, but to look forward to. He'd faced too many enemies who fought with no honor at all. Practicing with Nico, who wasn't above cheap tricks, helped Percy raise his game.

Anubis didn't fight a thing like Nico. Whenever they faced off, Percy's mind just kept screaming _'Wrong, wrong, wrong!'_ He made stupid mistakes because he got distracted or disconcerted, or because he was expecting Anubis to react like Nico would to a certain block or certain attack, only to be jarringly reminded that this wasn't his cousin he was facing.

It ticked Percy off.

"Anubis, come on," said Percy, getting annoyed when Anubis didn't respond. He stepped into the room and went up to the sarcophagus bed. "Nico. I mean Anubis. Come on."

The outside doors downstairs slammed shut, immediately putting Percy on high alert. No one should be coming or going now. It was almost midnight. He'd taken to sparring Anubis when no one else was awake to see, because they tended to draw a crowd, and because most of the Brooklyn House kids didn't know about Nico's situation. Those who hadn't been informed didn't even know that he was currently in residence at the house. They were used to him coming and going whenever he felt like it, disappearing for days, sometimes even weeks on end. Moral would probably fall if it got around that he'd been lying comatose and soulless in his room for the last half month.

Cautiously, Percy stepped back out into the hall, easing the door of Nico's room shut behind him. Then he pulled out Riptide and made his way to the main room to see who was there. He relaxed at the sight of some familiar faces. Sadie, Carter, and Annabeth were there. So was someone else. Someone who didn't belong at Brooklyn House.

It took Percy a few moments to remember the kid's name, and when he did, he frowned. Leo Valdez, counselor of the Hephaestus Cabin. He didn't know much about the kid, but from what he did, he was not impressed. Leo was constantly getting into trouble, coming up with elaborate schemes and Rube Goldberg inventions that more often than not blew up in his face, and the faces of all those around him. He did have his moments, though. Percy remembered how he'd managed to tame the automaton dragon that had been running around causing havoc last winter, but that was the exception rather than the rule. Or maybe not, since he'd somehow added wings to the thing and now it had taken to swooping in at any given time and trying to join in whatever Leo was doing, like it was some kind over over-sized, over-eager dog. More than that, Leo was twitchier than a squirrel on a caffeine high. Even for a demigod, his ADHD was bad, and he was always running off his mouth. Percy didn't think he was a bad kid or anything, but there was a long list of people Percy would trust before he trusted Leo Valdez.

"What's going on?" asked Percy as he walked down the stairs. "What's he doing here?"

"Stop glaring, Percy," said Annabeth. "I had a good reason for bringing him."

"Hi Percy," said Leo, as though oblivious to the fact that Percy didn't want him there. "So you're in on this too? Whatever this is?"

Percy looked expectantly at Annabeth, waiting for the explanation.

"He saw the schematics for that machine on my laptop," said Annabeth.

Percy fought back a wave of frustration. "Annabeth –"

"He only got a glimpse of it Percy," said Annabeth, her voice rising defensively. "Literally, a less-than-a-second glimpse. But in the time it took me to shut my laptop as he and Piper stepped into the Athena cabin, he was able to memorize the entire thing. Then he was able to work out what the machine did, just from seeing the outlines of the pieces that made up the machine, many of them not anywhere near where they were supposed to go. From one measly little look at the screen, he figured out how to fix it and what it actually did."

"And how dangerous something like that could be to us," said Leo, staring at the ceiling, or maybe at the railing around the upper levels, spinning around in a circle.

"Then instead of going to Chiron about it, like most people probably would have if they saw another demigod working on something so potentially dangerous, he came to me," said Annabeth."

Percy looked at Leo in surprise.

"Hey, I'm no rat," said Leo.

"Why?" asked Percy.

"Uh, probably because I have too many pairs of chromosomes. Or maybe not enough," said Leo. "How many pairs of chromosomes does a rat have again? I'm not good with organic life forms."

"No, Valdez," said Percy, certain that Leo was just playing stupid. "Why didn't you go to Chiron?"

"Um, you mean aside from the fact that he's an adult?" asked Leo. "Because Annabeth is Piper's friend, and Piper's my friend."

"You're awfully loyal," said Percy, still suspicious. "And what do you mean you didn't go to Chiron because he's an adult?"

"You can't trust grownups, man," said Leo, pulling out some sort of windup toy from his pocket and popping it open to reveal a bunch of tiny plastic gears, which he began promptly pulling out of place.

Percy looked at Annabeth to see if she had more to say.

"I explained our problem to Leo," she said. "How we have a friend who was hurt when this machine exploded. Leo thinks he might be able to help us figure out what happened but needed to see the components of the machine."

"Why?" asked Percy. "If he was able to tell so much just by the schematics on your laptop –"

"You don't get it," said Leo. "The power source wasn't listed on the screen. Annabeth doesn't understand it either. I have to see how it was being fueled and get an idea of how much refraction could be provided by the crystal you mentioned, because its density and luster weren't recorded in the schematics, figure out what kind of energetic waves it emitted, and then what its shatter-point was before I can even come up with a theory for how a soul could be severed from its body by that force, and where said soul would be sent, and that's based on an unproven theory that souls are comprised of energy of an unspecified kind, which will make it even more difficult to –"

"Breathe, Leo," interrupted Sadie, slapping him on the back. "You're brilliant, I know, but that brain of yours does need oxygen to function."

Leo grinned at her. "So you think I'm brilliant, huh?"

"No, don't even think about it," said Percy, moving to cut off Leo's view of Sadie. He'd heard about Leo's tendency to crush on unattainable women, and Sadie had too much drama where her love-life was concerned already. He didn't want to think about how Nico was going to deal with it when they finally got him back.

"You're no fun," said Leo. "So when do I get to see the machine? Or what's left of it? And are you ever going to actually tell me who this buddy of yours who's soul went missing is?"

"Maybe," said Annabeth, right as Percy said, "Not if we can help it."

"Cool," said Leo.

"Does he know what Sadie and Carter are?" Percy asked Annabeth softly as they led Leo to the spare classroom where the pieces of the machine that caused all this mess were being stored.

"I actually think he's always known," whispered Annabeth. At Percy's surprised look, she added, "He's a lot smarter than you'd think. He actually might be something of a genius."

"He's OK with them being Egyptian?"

"Totally," said Leo. "Sadie and Carter helped save me and Piper from ending up as a hellhound's nom nom the day we met."

Percy and Annabeth stopped talking and turned around to look at Leo, who was several yards behind them.

"Oh, sorry, was I not supposed to hear that?" asked Leo. He pulled something resembling a blue tooth earpiece off his ear. Upon closer inspection, Percy saw that it was made of colorful plastic gears. And he guessed that it probably amplified sound, and that Leo had been using it deliberately. The smile on his face was too devious for it to have been anything else.

"Stop that, Leo," said Annabeth. "Before you get accused of espionage or something."

Leo nodded and put the ear piece away. By that time they had arrived at the spare class room.

Percy stood back and watched as Leo dropped down on his knees beside the pieces and began examining them. "You're sure this is a good idea?" asked Percy.

"No. Not one hundred percent sure," said Annabeth. "But this is the closest thing we've had to a breakthrough since we started. And you know as well as I do that a lot of times with people like us, things happen for a reason."

"Yeah," admitted Percy.

"How many people in the world do you think could figure out what those schematics were supposed to be of even if they had an hour to pour over them?" continued Annabeth. "Leo had half a second, and he didn't just memorize them, he interpreted them. Someone like that just falling into our laps can't be coincidence."

"So he's meant to be a part of this?" asked Percy.

"I can't say how big a part. I just feel like this is right."

They watched for awhile as Leo worked, losing himself in his task. He lifted up certain pieces, turned them over, opened them up to see what, if anything, was inside, then rearranged them. After about ten minutes it became clear that the way he was arranging them was in the general order they'd need to be in if someone wanted to reassemble them.

When that was done, Leo moved on to the crystal, or what they'd retrieved of it. The pieces were all laid out on a piece of linen. Leo pulled a jeweler's monocle from out of his tool belt and used it to take a closer look at the largest fragment.

"Cubic zirconium," he declared a second later. "High refractive rate. I'd say 2.18 for this one, maybe even 2.19. Adamantine luster. So if . . . No, that wouldn't work. Unless . . . Oh, no. Oh Hade – uh never-mind, won't invoke that name now. Important question: Does Nico wear any stone jewelry?"

"What?" Four pairs of eyes stared at Leo with different degrees of surprise.

"Who said anything about Nico?" demanded Percy.

"Well, it's kind of obvious that he's the one whose soul went missing," said Leo. "He was on that mission, but hasn't been back to camp since, even though it's supposedly finished. He was friends with Sadie and Carter. We're at Sadie and Carter's house, or at least their base of operations. And you, Percy Jackson, are here brooding and being all suspicious. That's probably the biggest giveaway of all. Now quickly, tell me, does he wear any stone jewelry? I know he's got the skull ring but that's metal. That jackal pendant he wears, what's that made of?"

"Silver," said Sadie.

Leo muttered darkly in Spanish then stood and started pacing. "That wouldn't work. No, no. But I could . . . that could . . . Assuming that there was a suitable receptacle within range . . . proximity would be key, and if there weren't . . . no, not going to think about that."

"Think about what?" demanded Percy and Carter in unison.

"Talking about it would be even worse than thinking about it," said Leo, "and it's bad. Trust me, that would be very bad, so I'm not going to risk jinxing us by saying it."

"All in favor of not risking any jinxes?" asked Sadie, raising her hand.

Carter immediately raised his as well, as did Leo. Percy looked at Annabeth, who looked about ready to raise her own hand.

"Majority rules," said Sadie before it could become an issue.

"If that was something important," started Percy.

"It was a worst-case-scenario," said Leo. "Leaving that behind now, because I'm coming up with a plan for a gadget that will help us find . . . Alright, I need three cell phones, a waffle iron, and a pot of coffee!"

Everyone stared at him.

"What?" asked Sadie finally.

"Three cell phones, a waffle iron, and coffee," said Leo. "Preferably expresso."

"Leo, you know how demigods and cell phones –"

"I know," said Leo. "But I need them. I can take them apart and use their components to make a sort of radar that could help us find Nico's soul."

"Are you joking?" demanded Percy.

Leo gave Percy an impatient look then turned to Sadie. "Do you guys have a waffle iron?"

"No," answered Carter.

"Then we need to go out and get one," said Leo. "And the three cell phones. Unfortunately, I don't have any money, but –"

"We do," said Sadie immediately.

"Let's go," said Carter.

"It's after midnight," protested Annabeth.

"And we're in New York City," said Percy. "We'll find somewhere that's open. But Leo, are you sure this is going to work?"

For the first time that night, Leo's expression actually looked serious. "No. I can't be positive. This invention's going to be based on a theory I have about soul energy, and that theory could be wrong. But I think it will work. And it's the best thing I can come up with right now. I'll take care of getting the phones if you guys get the waffle iron and the coffee."

"How are you going to get three phones in the middle of the night?" demanded Sadie.

"I'm a man of means –"

"You just said you had no money."

"And sometimes my means mean operating outside the law."

"Leo," said Annabeth, overly patient, "you're not stealing three random peoples' phones."

* * *

Percy was tasked with picking up the waffle iron with Leo. Sadie and Carter went together to get the phones, since they weren't burdened by the demigods' problems with technology. Annabeth was getting the coffee.

"No, this doesn't look weird or suspicious at all," said Percy as he and Leo wandered through the appliance section of a 24 hour department store. "Two teens out at one in the morning shopping for waffle irons."

"This one will work," said Leo, tapping the display model then kneeling down to pick up one that was new in its box. He struggled with the weight a bit, until Percy pulled it from his grasp, seeing that the much smaller boy was having a hard time. "Right. Back to Tut's Tomb."

"Tut's Tomb?"

"That Egyptian house we were just at," explained Leo.

Percy shook his head but a smile was starting to form on his face. Despite his skepticism about Leo, he was starting to get a good feeling about this. True, Leo wasn't the most confidence-inspiring person in the world, but he seemed consistent at least. Percy was beginning to accept that Leo's brain functioned similarly to his own, except that instead of being geared toward combat, Leo's was geared toward inventiveness. When he talked about inventions and machines he had the same expression on his face that Percy knew was on his own when he spoke of fighting, or when he was actually in a fight. And, when it came down to it, it was in Percy's nature to trust people, unless he had a real reason not to. He was willing to admit now, to himself anyway, that his worry over Nico may have been clouding his judgment earlier.

They paid for the waffle iron with several of the crisp twenty-dollar-bills that Sadie and Carter supplied them with, then headed back toward Brooklyn House.

"Hey Percy?" said Leo, his voice soft.

"Yeah?"

"Don't look now, but we're being followed."

"What? Who?" Percy started to turn his head from side to side, searching for whoever was shadowing them.

"I said don't look!" said Leo, sounding exasperated. "Dude, that's exactly what you don't do when you know someone's following you, because now he knows we know he's following us, and we've lost our best chance at running and shaking him!"

Percy shifted the waffle iron box into his left hand and got Riptide ready with his right. "I don't run from fights, Leo."

"And I do," said Leo. "Because I like to avoid getting shanked, capped, or roughed up by punks, so let's just go, Percy!"

"My my, Percy Jackson," said an oily voice with an odd accent. "You certainly cut an imposing figure, with your waffle iron in one hand and your pen in the other. You should pose for a portrait like that."

"Who the heck are you?" asked Percy as the man came forward. He uncapped Riptide and started to hand the waffle iron box to Leo, until he saw that despite Leo's instincts to flee, he'd produced two large hammers from somewhere and was ready to fight. So instead of handing the waffle iron off to him, he set it on the ground.

"I'm sure you've heard of me. Perhaps Sadie and Carter mentioned me? I'm Setne."

"Did he just say his name is Sidney?" asked Leo.

"Close enough," said Percy. And yes, he did know who this guy was. Sadie and Carter had a lot of choice words for him. "What do you want?"

"Many things," said Setne. "Though right now one of the things I want is the same as what you want."

"Get your own waffle iron!" shouted Leo.

"Not the waffle iron, you matricidal little idiot-savant."

Leo stiffened. "What did you call me?"

"Yes, I know about you, Leo Valdez," said Setne. "I know how you caused your own mother's death and how you were rejected by the rest of your family. The devil's child, they called you when they threw you out like trash, to be bounced from home to home –"

"Shut up," said Leo, a slight tremble to his voice.

"I know the secrets you keep. That _burning_ fear that you'll–"

"If you don't shut up, I'll shut you up," said Percy angrily as he stepped between Setne and Leo. "Tell me right now what it is you want with me, or I'm sending you back to the underworld in pieces."

"Such hostility," drawled Setne, "so uncouth, especially since I'm here to help you."

"I don't want or need your help," said Percy.

"Not even if I have the key to saving dear little Nico?"

Percy glared. "What do you know about Nico?"

"I know that Anubis misplaced something very important of his. Very irresponsible that one, but what can you really expect from a hormone-crazed teen?" said Setne. "I also happen to know just where this important thing was misplaced. And the important thing is his soul, by the way. In case you're particularly dense and couldn't figure out that's what I was talking about. The Ritalin poster-child there looked a tad lost."

"Tell me, dead man," said Percy, "does it make you feel big and strong to pick on children?"

"Actually, yes," said Setne. "But we digress. Your Chihuahua there is going to get you on the right track. What he's planning will actually work. Or at least it will if you stop keeping secrets from him, or if he stops twitching long enough to actually explain his grand plans to you. Communication boys, is going to be the key to solving this."

Behind him, Percy heard Leo make an angry sound at Setne's racial slur. Part of Percy wanted to charge Setne and make him pay for that remark. Even though Percy and Leo weren't exactly friends, it ticked Percy off that someone was standing in front of both of them talking about Leo like that. But another part of Percy wanted to hear what Setne had to stay. Even though he knew it was probably a bad idea. He couldn't help it. If there was even a chance that Setne had relevant information about Nico, Percy had to hear him out.

"When you find out where Nico's soul is, you'll be flummoxed again. It will be right before you, but you'll be helpless to set it free, to set him free. He'll be every bit as lost to you as he already is. That's where my advice comes in," said Setne. "What you need is a specialist. Someone with the powers of the Wealthy One. _Precious_ few of those in existence. None of whom are currently alive. So, you'll have to get creative. Raise a little hell. Or sink to its level. Ask Anubis what I mean, when you get that far. He'll be able to figure it out."

"Maybe he can also tell us what you get out of this," said Percy. "Somehow I doubt you're going to tell me."

"Smart boy," said Setne. "Well, for now I bid you adieu, but don't worry. I'll be in touch."

Percy wanted to attack. Even though the man, well ghost, had his back turned, he wanted to charge him and take him down. He had the feeling that he'd regret not doing just that. But Percy wasn't the sort to stab someone in the back.

"Who was that guy?" asked Leo once Setne was gone. His voice was odd and a little tremulous, but he did a decent job of hiding it.

"An evil man who's cheated death more than once," said Percy. "He tried to kill Sadie and Carter not two weeks ago. You okay?"

"I'm fine," said Leo, but he didn't sound fine. Percy grabbed his arm to stop him when he tried to pick up the waffle iron box.

"I've got it," Percy told him.

Leo looked up at him, his expression like a statue's. Then he jerked his hand out of Percy's grip and picked up the box anyway.

Percy watched as the smaller boy started walking again, struggling with the weight. Then he sighed and caught up in three steps. He lifted the box out of Leo's scrawny arms with ease.

"I don't need your help you know," said Leo coldly.

"You're inventing something that might save my friend's soul," said Percy. "The least I can do is carry a box for you."

"Are we really going to do this? Are you going to pretend you didn't hear what that guy said?" Leo wanted to know.

"That's a conversation I don't even know how to start," said Percy, "and you don't seem to want to talk about it."

"Damn right I don't," muttered Leo.

"I won't make you then," said Percy. "I've done things that have gotten other people hurt too. I know that sometimes, despite what everyone says, it doesn't help at all to talk about it."

Leo stared at him, several emotions flickering across his face too fast for Percy to read.

"But sometimes," continued Percy, "it does help to let your friends help you with the heavy lifting."

"We're not friends," said Leo.

"You wanted to run but instead you stayed and watched my back," said Percy. "And you're helping me save my best friend's soul."

"And you don't trust me," said Leo. "I'm not an idiot. I saw the moment you saw me at Tut's Tomb that you didn't trust me."

"I didn't then. I do now."

Leo scowled. "Aren't you even going to ask?"

"Ask what?"

"If I did it on purpose," said Leo bitterly.

"You didn't," said Percy.

"You can't possibly know that."

"That look in your eyes tells me everything I need to know," said Percy. "Now come on. We should get moving." He started walking. Leo followed a few steps behind.

They didn't speak again all the way back to Brooklyn House, and once they were there, Leo immediately got to work. He used a set of small screwdrivers to take the waffle iron apart and stripped it down into so many spare parts. By the time he was finished with that, the others had arrived with the three requested phones and the coffee. Leo got started on the coffee and the phones simultaneously, working and drinking mechanically, like he himself was an automaton. His impish smile was gone. So were the spastic but animated movements. An hour ago, Percy would have thought this an improvement. Now he wished he could get the old Leo back.


	3. Chapter 3

Warning: The rest of this fic is subject to spoilers for both the Kane Chronicles (all three books) and Heroes of Olympus (up through Mark of Athena)

* * *

3

Percy explained to the others what had happened with Setne, out of Leo's hearing, leaving out the stupid jerk's remarks to Leo, but the others seemed to know he was omitting something.

"Did Setne do something to Leo?" asked Annabeth, glancing back at the younger teen with some concern. "He seems a little too subdued."

"He said some nasty stuff to him," said Percy, unwilling to lie to Annabeth again, but unable to tell her the whole truth. He couldn't do that to Leo. "Some of it hit a little too close to home for him, I think. He didn't actually get physically near him."

"I know," said Annabeth. "You may not like him, but you'd never stand by and let someone get hurt if you could help it."

"Leo's okay," said Percy. "I don't dislike him."

Leo continued working in silence for the next hour, pulling a number of tools seemingly out of thin air. After closer examination, Percy saw that he was actually producing them from his tool belt. He cracked open the cell phones and dismantled them, setting the screens aside and eventually lining them up together on top of the waffle iron cover.

By the time he was finished, the waffle iron resembled a closed laptop with a three panel screen where the top of the cover would normally be.

"Alright," Leo said finally. "Here's what we've got. This device, which I've decided to call the Soulocator, _should_ be able to find Nico's soul, assuming that what I believe happened is correct. See, the huge chunk of cubic zirconium was acting as a catalyst and creating a vacuum for all demigod powers by actually siphoning –"

"English, Leo," said Sadie. "No one understands what you're trying to say."

Leo's gaze darkened a little. "That's nothing new. Ok . . . the machine was literally sucking the souls of any demigod within range toward it. It wasn't strong enough to sever the bond between the souls and their bodies, but it was strong enough to siphon off their powers. But at close range, when it overloaded, it was strong enough, but only with direct contact. It displaced Nico's soul, but because of the, uh, you know, frequencies and stuff, Nico's soul would have been rechanneled into a material of similar makeup as the crystal. So, into stone, I mean. Some sort of crystalline structure, not necessarily a diamond or cubic zirconium. If he'd had any jewelry with stones, that would have been the first place I looked, but since he doesn't we should go to the place where he lost his soul and use this there to . . . what?"

Everyone's expressions had changed when Leo started talking about stones, and Percy realized they'd all come to the same conclusion.

"What did I say? What did I do this time?" demanded Leo.

"Nothing. It's not you," said Percy.

"We just realized something," said Sadie. Their group all looked at each other. They came to an unspoken decision.

"Nico wasn't wearing any stone jewelry, but he did have a stone on him," said Percy.

Leo looked from face to face. Then he handed the Soulocator to Sadie. "Here.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"It's user-friendly. You don't need me to operate it. My part in this seems done, so if –"

"But there's still getting Nico's soul back into his body," said Carter. "You're not going to help us with that?"

"You want me to try and extract a soul from a stone?" demanded Leo.

"Well, yeah."

"With no idea what I'm doing, or how to anchor it back into his body, with no precedent to draw from and only theory to guide me?"

"You figured out how to locate his soul," said Percy.

"Locating it is one thing. Trying to experiment on it is something else completely. Think back on the disaster that got his soul severed. That's what could happen again if I mess it up, because it will take at least that much energy to dislodge it from wherever it is," said Leo.

"Then what are we supposed to do even if this works?" demanded Percy.

"Get a god to help you," suggested Leo. "Or maybe these House of Life peeps can do something for it. They're supposed to be used to dealing with massive amounts of magical energy and things like soul relocation, if what we've been taught about them is true."

Sadie and Carter were looking at each other. "We could ask Anubis, I mean Walt –"

"You can ask him when I'm gone!" said Leo quickly. "I don't want to be in the room when any death gods show up!"

"Why are my ears suddenly burning?" asked Walt/Anubis from right behind them.

"Hey, welcome back," said Sadie, hurrying to give him/them a quick kiss on the cheek, while Carter rolled his eyes at the public display of affection.

"What?" asked Leo. "Is he . . ."

"Walt," said Walt, holding out his hand for Leo to shake, which Leo took automatically, "host of Anubis."

That made Leo jump, the fear on his face almost comical as he snatched his hand back.

"And you are?" inquired Walt.

"Leo," he introduced himself and looked at Annabeth as though waiting for instructions.

"Leo just made a device that should help us locate Nico's soul," said Percy. "But in explaining the device, he gave all the rest of us an idea on where Nico's soul might be."

"And where's that?" asked Anubis, and Percy could tell by the tone of his voice and the intensity of his gaze that Anubis was very present at that moment and Walt was taking the back seat. One thing he had to give the jackal god, saving Nico had become his top priority.

"In his heart scarab," said Percy.

"Impossible," said Anubis, annoyed. "Don't you think I would have noticed that?"

"How much do any of us really know about that stone?" returned Annabeth.

Anubis was silent.

"So, I was just about to leave," said Leo. "Since you guys don't need me for whatever comes next. And since you don't trust me –"

"Leo, it's not like that –"

"Anymore than I trust you," finished Leo ironically.

There were a few seconds of silence as Leo's words sunk in.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Percy finally.

"Um, you mean besides what it says on the tin?" asked Leo. "Because you guys are keeping secrets right and left, and you clearly don't want to let me in on them. Not that I really want to be let in on them. I want Nico to be OK, but I don't see what more I can do to help, so like I said, my part in this is done. I'm going back to camp."

For a few more seconds, no one spoke.

"I'll show you out," said Sadie finally.

"Sadie," said Carter, sounding appalled. "Leo, you don't have to go –"

"But he wants to," said Sadie. "And he's right, we're not going to be filling him in on everything. Even if we wanted to, we don't have time. No offense, Leo."

"None taken," said Leo. "So, you said you were going to show me out?"

Percy felt bad letting Leo leave after all that had happened so far, but what else could he really do? Leo didn't want to be there anymore. He clearly was not OK with the stuff Sedne had told him, and had been avoiding looking at Percy as much as possible, probably since Sedne had spilled some of Leo's secrets to Percy. And they weren't going to be letting Leo in on everything. Percy trusted him a little bit now, but not enough to give him information that, if told to the wrong person, would start the inter-pantheon war they'd been trying to avoid for about a year now. Even most of the Brooklyn House kids didn't have that information.

"Well," said Sadie when she returned from showing Leo out. "Shall we test this bad boy out?" She held up the Soulocator.

* * *

As they'd all expected, the Soulocator led them right to Nico's heart scarab. They turned the device on downstairs, and the three separate screens all lit up with different images. One looked like a sonar, or at least how movies always portrayed sonars, with a star indicating the missing soul that kept making a pinging noise. Another seemed to be some sort of thermal image that showed the heart scarab clearly, even though there were several walls and floors in the way. The third screen showed a maze-like map of Brooklyn house, and a dotted line that charted out the best route for them to take to get to Nico's soul. Honestly, they could have figured that last one out easily enough on their own, but in Leo's defense, he'd been expecting them to use the device somewhere other than their own home.

"How could I not have realized this?" groaned Anubis as they went up to Nico's room to take a closer look at the scarab stone.

"Maybe because people don't generally expect souls to get trapped into stones, even if those stones are imbedded in their chests," suggested Sadie. "Don't be so hard on yourself, love."

After they'd gotten upstairs and taken a look at the stone, they came to another snag. Anubis had no idea what to do or how to get Nico's soul out of it or back into his body. He couldn't even tell that it was in there.

Sadie hadn't seen much of Nico's heart scarab. None of them had, since he wasn't prone to getting his shirt ripped open like Captain Kirk. It didn't look any different to her than from the times she'd seen it. Percy said the same. Not that Sadie expected one of them to notice something that a god who dealt in death and souls couldn't see.

"I probably don't have to say this, but I think it's time to tell Anubis what Setne told you," said Sadie to Percy.

Anubis growled. "Setne? You saw him?"

"Yeah," admitted Percy.

"And you didn't capture him?"

"No. Because he didn't attack me before introducing himself, and by the time I had any inclination of trying to beat him senseless, he'd already turned his back to me," said Percy.

"Well? What did he say?"

"He said . . ." Percy twisted up his face as he tried to remember. "Setne said . . . When we found out where Nico's soul is, we'd be confused again. That he'll still be as lost to us now that we know as he was when we didn't know. And he said we'd need a specialist. Something about powers of wealth and getting creative by raising hell or something."

Sadie smirked. "Well, that was a truly remarkable effort. Good job."

"That makes no sense," said Anubis.

"Yeah, no kidding," agreed Sadie. "Thankfully though, before he left, Leo gave me this." She held up Leo's parting gift to her. It was that strange blue-tooth earpiece lookalike made out of plastic toy gears. "He recorded the conversation you guys had with Setne."

Percy looked surprised. "All of it?"

Sadie pushed the button Leo had instructed her to, and Setne's oily voice began playing through the tiny speaker.

"_When you find out where Nico's soul is, you'll be flummoxed again. It will be right before you, but you'll be helpless to set it free, to set him free. He'll be every bit as lost to you as he already is. That's where my advice comes in. What you need is a specialist. Someone with the powers of the Wealthy One. Precious few of those in existence. None of whom are currently alive. So, you'll have to get creative. Raise a little hell. Or sink to its level. Ask Anubis what I mean, when you get that far. He'll be able to figure it out."_

"The Wealthy One? That's a reference to Had – uh, I mean to Nico's father," said Annabeth, choosing not to invoke the god's name. "So, we need someone with his powers other than Nico? Bianca maybe?"

"That would fit with that part about raising hell or sinking to its level," said Carter. "Since she's . . . you know."

"No," said Anubis darkly. "She and Nico had the same powers. Death powers."

"That they got from their father, the Wealthy One," said Percy.

"No demigod gets every power their parent possess," said Anubis. "Not even gods inherit their parents' every power. Old Corpse Breath has two spheres of power. Nico and Bianca both had their father's power over death, but neither of them have his power over the riches of the earth."

"Nico's got some power over stone," argued Percy.

"But not over riches," argued Anubis right back. "There have been children of the underworld who have been capable of controlling jewels and precious metals much like you control water."

"And you're sure Nico and Bianca couldn't? I never saw them even try," said Percy. "And we don't know the full scope of Bianca's powers, if they were identical to Nico's or not."

"Percy, I don't think it could have been Bianca," said Annabeth.

"Why not?"

"Because she joined the Hunters of Artemis. When a girl does that, whatever powers she inherited from her godly parent stop developing," said Annabeth. "They pretty much get frozen along with her age."

"But Bianca –"

"Bianca was about twelve at the time."

"So was I when I flooded the toilets at Camp Half-blood."

"Yeah, but remember how long it took you to get control over water?" asked Annabeth.

"That doesn't mean Bianca never had any powers over wealth," said Percy.

"But even if she did, how useful would she be at extracting a soul from a semi-precious stone?" asked Sadie. "I think that's the point your girlfriend's trying to make, Percy."

"Alright, fine then," huffed Percy. He looked quite put out. "What then? Nico doesn't have any living siblings, does he? That oath the Big Three swore and all that. Even though Zeus and Poisedon broke it, Nico's dad didn't. Did he?"

"I think we would have heard by now if he had," said Annabeth, "but you missed something. The Roman forms of our gods didn't make that vow."

"So Nico might have a Roman half-brother or sister," realized Carter. "We need to contact Jason and find out."

"That's not necessary," said Anubis. "There are no other children of the underworld walking the earth but Nico right now."

"And you know that how?" asked Sadie.

"The same way I knew of Walt's curse," said Anubis. "Death gods know where people with the shadow of death hanging over their entire lives are. When they're born, where they live, where they go –"

"But we're looking for someone with wealth powers, not death powers. Would that make a difference?"

"Not as long as they're really a death god's progeny," said Anubis. "I can tell you with certainty that Nico has no living siblings, Greek or Roman. They all died in the 40s. Your half-siblings killed all of them."

Annabeth and Percy looked at each other uncomfortably. Sadie shifted awkwardly and glanced at Carter. His expression was probably similar to her own. Sadie had forgotten how complicated Greek demigods' families were. She couldn't even imagine what family reunions were like. Then there was the slight matter of how they tended to cause world wars, and end up on different sides, and their siblings killed their friends siblings, and everything turned into a mess. She wondered how in Hades they managed to get along with each other now, with several thousand years of bloody history like that behind them. If someone killed Carter, she sure as hell wouldn't be able to be friends with that murderer's sibling. She couldn't guarantee she wouldn't start a blood feud with them and try to wipe them all out.

"Wait. No, not all of them," said Anubis. Suddenly he looked very faraway. "There was one who died elsewhere. And she had power over wealth rather than death."

"From what Setne says, it sounds like we're supposed to try to get in contact with someone who's dead, but will that really help us?" asked Annabeth. "If all Nico's siblings died so long ago, they'll have been reborn, won't they?"

"Not this one," said Anubis darkly. "She died a hero's death, but her circumstances were very unfortunate. If the rumors are true, she is still in the underworld, in the Fields of Asphodel."

This apparently meant something to Annabeth and Percy because they didn't look pleased. "Why is she there?" asked Annabeth.

"It's complicated," Anubis told her.

"Complicated or not, we need to know," said Percy. "If we're going to try to summon her, or go down and find her, or resurrect her, or whatever it is that we're supposed to do, we need to know what she did to get sent there."

"It is a very long story," said Anubis. "Perhaps we should go downstairs and sit down.

* * *

Leo, despite what the others probably thought, wasn't upset. Not really. Or at least not about them not letting him into their secret club. He knew the look of people who were in over their heads. Every single kid there definitely was.

Don't get him wrong, he liked Nico. The code of outcasts made them semi-friends by default, and they actually got along when Nico was at camp. If there was something more he could have done to help the kid, he probably would have. There just wasn't anything he could actually do. Or so he thought. It turned out that Setne begged to differ.

Leo realized quite quickly that he was being followed. He hadn't survived years on the run and on the street without picking up a heightened sense of awareness, even if he was severely ADHD. True, most details he took in went in one ear and out the other, but the ones that mattered stayed. Anything relating to danger mattered.

Leo would be the first to admit he wasn't brave. He wasn't a coward or anything, he was just practical about dangerous situations. When he could, he avoided them. Even if it meant running and getting called a coward.

That's what he tried to do when he knew Setne was trying to trail him. He sprinted across a road that probably would have been busy if it wasn't the middle of the night, then into an alley. A dumpster provided easy access to a fire escape, which he scrambled up, thinking himself in the clear, as he couldn't see or hear any signs of Setne. When he found the man waiting on the roof for him, he was not happy.

"Hello again, Leo," Setne greeted him.

"Goodbye again, Sidney," returned Leo.

"You might as well stay and hear me out. Or have I not just proven that I am fully capable of not just catching up to you, but getting ahead of you?"

Leo glowered. "You're annoying, you know that?"

"Such hurtful words. Wait. Not really. Pity. Though they may hurt you, I am unaffected," said Setne.

"They don't hurt me," said Leo.

"Yes they do."

"Ok, they do. Wait, no they don't," said Leo. "You're fishing."

Setne gave him an unsettling smile. "I'm not and you know it. You're such a pathetic little specimen of a half-blood. A psychiatrist would have a field-day with you and all your issues."

"Pot, meet kettle," muttered Leo.

"I may be a bit of a megalomaniac, but I embrace it. You on the other hand have an inferiority complex. Everything bothers you, from the laughs about you behind your back, to the fact that you never really fit in, to the fact that you have no real friends –"

"I have friends."

"Who? Your half-siblings?" asked Setne. "How many of them actually know you. Piper? She only keeps you around for comic relief. Percy Jackson? Annabeth Chase? The Kane siblings? Then why are you out here alone? They didn't even offer to see you back to camp safely or call a pegasus for you to borrow."

"I can take care of myself," snapped Leo.

"You've had to, haven't you," said Setne. "No one's ever been there for you. No one's ever wanted to be around you."

"I don't get what your beef with me is," said Leo. "I've never done anything to you, aside from call you Sidney. What is your problem with me? Are you trying to drive me into jumping off this roof for a laugh? Because if that's it, I can tell you right now, you're wasting your time. I don't care about people as much as you seem to think."

"Yes you do."

"As you pointed out, I killed my own mother. How much could I possibly care about anyone?" Leo hated himself a little for saying that, but if he was going to bluff he needed to be able to back himself up somehow.

"You do care. It's why you went to try and help them save Nico. I take it your little invention worked the way you intended?"

"Well, there was a slight malfunction with the electro-stasis field that totally wasn't my fault, and now Sadie's got electricity powers that may or may not be permanent, but if you're asking about whether or not it found Nico's soul . . ." Leo managed to keep a straight face as Setne's previously unwavering expression cracked, his jaw dropping slightly.

"You're joking. You must be joking," said Setne.

"My jokes aren't that funny," said Leo.

Setne stared at him, clearly unable to tell if he was joking or not.

"I'm just lucky Carter's so level headed," said Leo. "Any other guy probably would have busted my jaw for doing that to their sister."

"My gods, you did give Sadie electricity powers," muttered Setne.

_Score one for Team Leo!_ Leo congratulated himself on a successful lie. "I take it you didn't corner me to force me to recreate the experiment and give you superpowers too."

Setne finally recovered and gave Leo a very serious look. "I'm here because they still need you. They just don't know it yet."

"Weren't you just going on and on about how no one needs me?"

"It's true, most of the time you're a waste of space in this already cancerously overcrowded city, but for once your existence is necessary," said Setne.

"Not buying it," said Leo, "and even if I did, what makes you think I'd care?"

"Because there is a girl who needs you. A beautiful, young lady who needs rescuing, who only you will be able to reach," said Setne.

"Yeah. Tell me another."

"I'm telling you the truth. No one has ever needed you like this girl does. Without you there, they won't be able to even find her," said Setne. "If by chance they do, it's very unlikely she'd help them. She'd fear a trick, or possibly have retreated so far into her own mind that she won't respond to a word they say."

"Then why in Had – why would she talk to me?" demanded Leo.

"Because you and she are connected," said Setne. "The others need you for this. Trust me."

"Trust you? Amigo, I trust no one," said Leo, "dead people who seem to know way too much least of all. Everything you've told me tonight has just convinced me that I don't want to be mixed up in this."

"You're a horrible liar," said Setne. "You and I both know that as soon as we part ways, you're going to turn right around and run back to Brooklyn House to convince them to bring you along."

"Well, if you're so convinced, we might as well call this meeting over," said Leo. "It's been fun, but I'm sick of you now."

"You'll go to them because they need you. Because _she_ needs you. And if there's one thing you need, Leo Valdez, it's to be needed. If there's one thing you crave it's to be a part of something. You would give up everything for a chance to belong somewhere. For a chance at a new family. Well, this is your chance. Without you, they will fail. Nico's soul will remain trapped in stone. Poor Hazel will remain trapped in the Fields of Asphodel for all eternity. And you will always be an outcast."

"And you're telling me this out of the goodness of your heart?" suggested Leo. "You're like my fairy godmother? There's obviously nothing in this for you."

"I'll admit, I do have an angle," said Setne. "Nothing you'd object to, though. In fact, you might even like to help me."

"If I'm not going to help my fellow demigods who are kind of my friends, what makes you think I'm going to help you?" demanded Leo.

"Because my plan involves delivering some serious hurt to a certain sleepwalking woman you want to burn the heart out of," said Setne, smiling seductively. "You know who I'm talking about."

Leo froze. As in he stood completely still. For a good ten seconds all he did was stare at Setne. He didn't even breathe.

"This is, of course, just one part of the plan, but an important part," said Setne. "Well, I think that's enough to be going on for now."

"Name."

"Your pardon?"

"Tell me her name." said Leo.

"In due time."

"No. Now. Or I walk," growled Leo.

"No you won't," said Setne.

Leo felt the air around him begin to heat up and shimmer with fire haze. "Want to bet?"

"As a matter of fact . . . I do." Setne smiled. Then he disappeared.

Light danced around Leo as flames erupted over his skin, his powers reacting to his rage. He struggled to bring it under control. The last thing he wanted was someone snapping a picture that would end up on a tabloid cover. He wasn't a hero. He had no business being mistaken for the Human Torch.

He wondered what he'd do if he was a hero, but only for a second. The answer seemed obvious. Dash back to Tut's Tomb, volunteer to lead the charge to the Fields of Wherever, rescue the damsel in distress, and become a part of the team. Oh, and tell Percy and them all about what Setne had just told him, about how part of his master plan included beating up Leo's nemesis, just so that there were no skeletons in his closest.

Too bad for Percy and co, but Leo wasn't a hero.

* * *

AN: So who figured out where Nico's soul was, from Setne's and Leo's clues last chappie? I'm just curious.

As a warning, Leo's being written a little darker to start off with than he is in Heroes of Olympus since in this AU he doesn't have a purpose, like building the Argo gave him, and he doesn't have Jason as his best friend, watching his back. When you start cutting such important parts out of characters lives, it's bound to change who they end up becoming. He's got Piper, but the sense I got from reading Heroes of Olympus was always that they were both closer to Jason than they were to each other. So now, never having had a purpose, never having had a best friend, or gone on quests, or been motivated to firmly choose his side, this universe's Leo is kind of lost. But on the bright side, he still has really high destructive potential, and it's entirely possible that in this fic or an upcoming one, I'll get a chance to have him scream: "BURN ALL THE BABIES!" Yes, I still want that to happen, lol.

Next chapter: Anubis describes Hazel and tells her story, Sadie gets a little jealous, and our heroes prepare for an excursion into the underworld.


	4. Chapter 4

4

Warning again, in case you missed it the first time: The rest of this fic has spoilers for Heroes of Olympus (up through Mark of Athena) and all Kane Chronicles Books.

* * *

"Her name was Hazel Levesque," said Anubis. "She was a beautiful girl, dark skinned with eyes like molten gold, and wavy hair of a million different earth tones. She surpassed even Nefertiti in beauty –"

"Who?" asked Percy.

"Nefertiti," Anubis told him. "The greatest beauty of Ancient Egypt."

"Think Helen of Troy, but Egyptian," Carter told him.

"Oh. Ok."

"She was a daughter of Pluto, born to a human woman, a voodoo practicer. The woman was trite and not particularly powerful, little more than a fortune teller to be honest. And she cursed her daughter at her birth, by asking for all the riches of the Underworld," continued Anubis. He must not have seen the glare Sadie was leveling at him, or Percy didn't think he'd be carrying on so calmly. "As Hazel grew, and came into her powers, riches began to be drawn toward her, out of the earth. Some stones and metals were raw, unshaped by human hands. Others were the buried treasures of humans. And still others were from her father's hoards of treasure. All held one thing in common. They cursed anyone who touched them other than Hazel or her mother.

"Freak accidents and deaths plagued any who bought them. Rumors began to spread rampantly about the two. Hazel grew into a beautiful but sad young woman. Her mother grew into a bitter wretch."

"How do you know all this?" demanded Sadie.

Anubis looked a bit surprised at her tone. "I just do."

"No, you just don't know something like this. Did you hear it from one of your death god friends or something?" asked Sadie. "Or did you learn it first hand from watching her?"

Anubis was silent for a second. "From watching her, I suppose."

"No, that's not at all stalkerish."

"Sadie," said Carter.

"Shut up," she told him.

Percy fought the urge to face palm. "Go on, Anubis. What happened?" he asked before this could escalate. When he got the chance, he'd have to let Anubis know in private that it was a bad idea to talk about another girl being pretty in front of your girlfriend.

"Hazel's mother succumbed to evil forces," said Anubis. "With the war in Europe winding to a close, and your last Great Prophecy suggesting that the gods were due to fall, other powers from your mythology, older and darker than any you've already faced, began stirring, preparing, and setting their own plans in motion."

"What are you talking about?" asked Annabeth. She and Percy shared a worried look.

"You say there's stuff in Greek mythology worse than Kronos?" asked Percy.

"What's worse than a monster?" asked Anubis cryptically in return.

Percy scowled. "I don't know."

"A monster's mother," whispered Annabeth, her eyes wide.

"Huh?" asked Percy.

Anubis was nodding. "Gaea was trying to put some pieces on the game board. She summoned Hazel and her mother to Alaska, the land beyond the gods, where they forced Hazel to use her powers to pull riches from the earth, that they used to build a body of precious metals and jewels, so that they could resurrect Alcyoneus."

"And he is?" prompted Percy.

"One of the giants Gaea created after the gods overthrew Kronos the first time," said Annabeth. "Gaea is Kronos's mother."

"Oh. Well that's . . . not good?"

"She sounds like a tool," said Sadie.

"Gaea is a very dangerous goddess," warned Anubis.

"Not Gaea. Hazel," said Sadie. "She let them use her to resurrect someone who's clearly an evil entity."

"It was Hazel who delayed his return in the end," said Anubis. "When she learned exactly what they had been forcing her to do, she used her power to sink the island they were on into the ocean. She did this knowing it would cost her own life."

"A hero's death," said Percy.

"Then what happened?" asked Annabeth. "You said she's in the Fields of Asphodel. Why?"

"Because at her trial, she took half the blame," said Anubis. "It was the only way she could save her mother from eternal punishment. She was among the bravest souls I ever met. Er, not that I met her. Because I didn't. I just –"

"Watched her," supplied Sadie, her tone biting.

"Yes," said Anubis.

"Probably while she slept, like a true creeper," muttered Sadie.

Percy coughed, trying to hide a laugh. "You think she'll help us though? You think she can get Nico's soul out of his heart scarab?"

"Setne thinks so," said Anubis, his tone darkening. "But I can't say that I trust anything he does. In addition, obtaining her help will be very difficult."

"Why's that?" demanded Sadie.

"Because she's in the Underworld for starters," said Annabeth. "In Hades, and not a very good part at that."

"Are there good parts of Hades?" asked Carter.

"There are," said Percy. "Heroes go to Elysium, but that's beside the point right now."

"More than that, I will not be able to go there," said Anubis. "It is one thing for demigods to trespass in Hades's realm. It's akin to trespassing on school grounds after classes, to smoke cigarettes or drink beer . . . with consequences a little more dire. For another death god to trespass in Hades's realm, however, would be seen as an act of war."

"How are we going to find her without you?" asked Annabeth. "We have no idea what she looks like."

"You'll know her when you see her," said Anubis. "She has golden eyes and is very beautiful."

"There are thousands of souls in the Fields of Asphodel," said Percy. "We're not likely to have time to look each one in the eye. And when we do find her, what are we supposed to do? Escape with her? How would that even work? It would be really awkward if we got her out of the Underworld, only to find she had turned into a corpse or something."

"No demigod has ever managed to bring back a soul that has truly died," added Annabeth. "Percy only managed with his mother because she wasn't truly dead. Hades kept her alive to bargain with."

Anubis looked uncertain. "Nico might be able to figure out a way to bring a soul back and make certain it stays back. But I'm afraid I don't know how that would work with one of your souls. A demigod soul that is."

"Is it possible to bring Nico into the Underworld?" asked Annabeth. "Or is your soul stuck in his body going into the Underworld breaking your unspoken peace treaty?"

Anubis thought this over. "That might work. Nico has made brief trips back to the Underworld since our souls were fused. If I keep my soul's presence in his body to the absolute minimum, so far we've managed to keep me under his father's radar."

"If we can bring Nico to her rather than her to Nico, that will be easier," said Percy. "Then all we have to worry about is that problem of finding her."

"And getting her to help us," said Annabeth.

"Nico's her brother. Why wouldn't she help us?" asked Percy.

"Look where helping her mother got her," said Annabeth. "And she's been in the Fields of Asphodel for 70 years. Who knows what's left of her? If there is anything, she's bound to be suspicious and untrusting."

"Oh. Yes." Anubis looked crestfallen.

"But Nico's her brother," said Percy again. "Won't that get through to her?"

"Nico is a stranger," said Anubis. "It might not. I can only think of one person who could have unconditionally gotten through to her and . . . oh _hell."_

"What?" asked Carter, looking at him shocked.

"That . . . that demigod who was here," groaned Anubis. "I thought he looked familiar. I didn't . . . But no, that's not possible. It must be a trick of my mind."

"Are you talking about Leo?" asked Percy.

"He bears a resemblance to Hazel's . . . boyfriend," said Anubis. He said the last word with distaste.

Sadie punched him in the gut. Hard.

"Ouch! What?" asked Anubis.

"Nothing."

Anubis stared at her, bemused.

"Is his resemblance strong enough that, I don't know, Hazel might think they were the same person?" asked Annabeth.

"I don't know. Maybe." Anubis rubbed his side where Sadie had hit him. "Possibly."

"Well, this is going to go over well," muttered Percy. "We have to convince Leo Valdez not just to go on an unauthorized quest to the Underworld with us, but once we get there, he has to impersonate some girl's dead boyfriend."

"I can't see him getting on board with that," said Carter.

"Doubly so since I have Nico's memories," said Anubis. "Leo may act like a player, but he has rigid standards. He doesn't hit on girls he knows have boyfriends. And he never does anything that would hurt a girl's feelings."

"So . . . we're back to the drawing board again," said Annabeth. "We still have no way of knowing what this girl looks like, or how to find her once we get to the Fields of Asphodel, or if she'll help us, or be in any shape to help us even if we can find her. This plan doesn't seem so good."

"We could try asking Leo to help us," said Percy. He knew that the chances of Leo actually agreeing were slim, but he was desperate. This was the closest they'd been to figuring this mess out. He couldn't just give up when they might actually have a solution. "The worst he can do is say no."

"No, the worst he can do is go to Chiron and tell him everything," said Annabeth.

"But he wouldn't, would he?" asked Percy. "He said he doesn't trust adults."

"We're not that far off from being adults ourselves, you know," Annabeth reminded him.

Percy stared at her in horror. "What? We're not old!"

"In Ancient Egypt, you'd be adults," said Anubis.

"That's neither here nor there," said Sadie. "What I think Annabeth meant is that Leo has no reason to be loyal to the two of you over being loyal to Chiron. If you start trying to get him wrapped up in some psychotic plan, which frankly, this seems to be, he might decide that you're succumbing to the insanity and untrustworthiness of all adults (since you are a couple years older than him) and rat you out to Chiron, thinking that's the lesser of the two evils."

She had a point, much as Percy hated to admit it.

"Well, let's forget about Leo for the moment then. Maybe we should wait for Jason? He might have some ideas. And there might be differences for how a Roman soul is dealt with in the Fields of Asphodel as opposed to a Greek soul," said Percy. "Maybe if we're lucky it won't be as bad."

"When are we ever lucky?" muttered Annabeth.

"Hey, it could be worse," said Sadie. "Those giants that Gaea was trying to raise way back when could be rising now."

"For the love of Ra, don't jinx us, Sadie," said Anubis. "Have you learned nothing about the power of jinxes?"

"Oh. Oops. Right."

* * *

Leo tried to go back to Camp Half-Blood. He seriously did. He wanted to. It would have been the smart thing to do. But somehow he found himself back at the doors of Tut's Tomb.

He expected them to be locked or warded, but when he raised his fist to knock, they came open at the slightest touch. He guessed that Sadie must have forgotten to lock up after him. Or maybe their protection spells were good enough to keep away all enemies and door-to-door salesmen, so they didn't have to worry about things like locks. If that was the case, he guessed that his prior admittance kept him from being barred from reentry.

He heard their voices coming from a room off to the side of their really big living room, and padded closer. Before he reached the door their voices became clear.

"Her name was Hazel Levesque. She was a beautiful girl, dark skinned with eyes like molten gold, and wavy hair of a million different earth tones. She surpassed even Nefertiti in beauty . . ."

Leo recognized the name. It was the name of the damsel Setne wanted him to save.

He wasn't sure why he didn't announce himself right then. Maybe because he wanted to know what was going on and realized subconsciously that the information flow would dry up really fast if they knew he was there. So he listened in without letting them know he was there.

It was very enlightening.

Leo knew a lot of people thought he was stupid. Or too ADHD to take anything in. He didn't usually bother letting them know the truth. A smart person running around shouting "I'm smart!" didn't convince anyone. And he wasn't going to even bother denying that he was severely ADHD. But despite what everyone thought, Leo was no slouch when it came to intelligence. True, a lot of stuff he didn't bother paying attention to, but when he did, he saw connections that most others didn't. He saw how bits and parts of stories fitted together like pieces of an engine. Where there were gaps, he was able to see what fit into the hole. By the time they got around to talking about him he'd already figured out why they'd been so cautious around him. The secrets they were keeping were ridiculously dangerous. Almost as jaw-dropping were their plans to try and fix the mess they were in.

Leo found himself backing away from their meeting room as they were writing him off. That was probably for the best, he thought. He'd had no idea what he was getting himself into when he came back, and it wasn't too late to back out again. No one would think any less of him, since no one knew he was even there.

He turned around and walked right into a tall, purple-shirted, blond teen with chiseled abs that he could feel just by running into his shirt. The macho guy was flanked by a beautiful girl with a lot of Egyptian jewelry. The girl glared at him, while the boy looked blank.

"Hi. I was just leaving," said Leo, trying to step around the blond. And Macho Guy would have let him go, but Jewelry Girl apparently knew he wasn't supposed to be there.

"Stop him, Jason!"

Macho Guy immediately grabbed at Leo, but scrawniness trumped muscles as Leo ducked beneath his grasp.

"Sorry, but I really gotta go!" said Leo making a run for it.

Then a truck hit him. Wait. No, it was just Jason. He tackled Leo and landed on him, hard.

"Ouch! Get off me!"

"I don't think so!"

"Carter! Sadie! Percy! We've caught a spy!" shouted the Egyptian girl.

"I'm not a spy!" said Leo. Or at least he tried to. Jason had pulled him off the ground and had him in a choke hold, so what he actually said sounded more like "Agghota fie!"

Apparently Jason didn't like that, because he tightened his choke hold on Leo even more. Leo could not be blamed for what happened next. It was a natural reaction to being choked, and Jason was practically asking for it.

Flames flickered around his body. As always, it didn't harm him or his clothes. Jason however was not as fire-proof. A pained yell preceded him letting go of Leo to stop, drop, and roll. Leo dropped too, but didn't roll. He just fell to his knees and coughed, clutching his throat.

"You!" shouted the Egyptian girl. "How dare you?"

"Leo?" Thank the gods, there were Percy and Annabeth, and the Kanes. And Anubis-Walt, but Leo wasn't particularly thankful toward him or thankful about seeing him. "What's going on? What are you doing back here?"

When Leo tried to answer a frog-like croak was all that escaped his throat.

"Don't blast him, Zia," said Carter quickly.

"Yeah, we need him," said Sadie.

"What in Pluto's name was that?" demanded Jason. "He just, like, lit himself on fire kind of!"

Leo finally managed to coax his voice into working. "No I didn't."

"You did!"

"You deserved it. You were strangling me!" snapped Leo.

"So you admit you lit me on fire!" yelled Jason.

"I plead the fifth!"

"Leo, what are you doing back here?" asked Percy, stepping between them.

"Aww, don't stop them, I was enjoying the show," pouted Sadie.

"I ran into Sidney on the way home," growled Leo hoarsely.

"Are you alright?" asked Percy immediately.

"What did he say?" asked Sadie at the same time.

Leo coughed again and took a deep breath. "He said you guys needed me to save Nico. And the damsel. I mean Hazel. That's why I came back."

"You were listening to what they were saying, then trying to skulk away!" snapped Jason.

"Yeah. Because I found out exactly what Sidney wanted me to do and what secrets you all are wrapped up in," shot back Leo.

"Who the hell is Sidney?"

"So you know?" asked Percy sounding tired.

"That Anubis is somehow possessing both Nico and Walt? Uh, yeah. And that you guys are going on a field trip to the Underworld? Yeah. I know that too."

"What?" asked Zia.

"Trip to the Underworld?" asked Jason.

"That's kind of new," said Percy. "And now really not how we'd wanted to invite you along, Leo."

"You didn't want to invite me along at all," said Leo. "And I don't really want to go."

"That's good, because no one wants you along," said Jason.

"Wait. Stop. I think we need to play catch up," said Annabeth.

"Great. You do that. I'll go home," said Leo.

"Leo –"

"No. I didn't sign up for this. I had no idea what idiotic forces you people were fooling around with when I decided to lend a hand!" shouted Leo.

"If you were spying on what we were saying then you know what's at stake," said Sadie. "You think that running home and hiding under your bed will make you safe?"

"You're talking about a raid on the Underworld! And an inter-pantheon war! And I don't even know what this Roman stuff you keep talking about is, but I doubt it's anything that'll simplify the equation."

Sadie moved so she was standing right in front of him. "And like I just said, will hiding from it make you safe? We're not doing this because we want to, you know. Anubis and Nico never chose to get their souls fused. Nico sure as heck didn't chose to lose his soul inside that damn stone scarab! The Fields of Asphodel aren't our idea of a prime holidaying spot! The only reason we're doing all this crazy stuff is because if we don't then that inter-pantheon war you're pissing your pants over will happen! Would you rather we did nothing? Would you?"

"I don't know, maybe! This is all just crazy!"

"Welcome to life!"

Leo crossed his arms and looked away.

"Leo," said Annabeth. "We need you. Look, you know me. And Nico. And you know what Percy stands for even if you don't know him personally. We wouldn't be doing this if we had a choice, but we don't. If we fail, there will be war and death. If we do nothing, there will be war and death. Succeeding is the only way to avoid them."

Leo didn't voice his first thought. That if they wanted to succeed, he was the last person they should want along. Everything he touched went to hell. He wasn't a hero. If he was, he would have been able to save his mother. Instead he'd killed her. Plus, though they couldn't know it, if he did join them it would be with his own hidden motive, and one they'd hardly approve of.

A hand fell on his shoulder. He looked up startled to find Percy's sea-green eyes staring sympathetically down at him. "You don't have to decide right now. You're exhausted. Anyone can tell that. Take some time to think it over. Sleep on it."

"I'll think it over," said Leo, "but this doesn't mean I'm saying yes."

Which was a lie, he knew even then. Agreeing to think it over meant recognizing that they had legitimate enough points to consider. Which meant Leo was going to get suckered into helping because the only alternative was to sit back and either wait for them to succeed without him or wait for them to fail and bring about that inevitable inter-pantheon war.

So despite all his reservations, he'd be joining them and he knew it.

But he still wouldn't be telling them what little he knew about Setne's master-plan, or his own motives. He'd only tell them that if it became relevant. Otherwise they didn't need to know. Just because they were coming clean with all their secrets didn't mean Leo had to do the same. He wasn't going to forget that if they had their way, he'd still be out of the loop.

He wasn't part of the team. That much was clear. He was only on board because they wanted to use him. So he didn't feel bad about using them either, to avenge the only person in the world who'd ever actually cared about him.

* * *

AN: Ok, so Leo's and Jason's first meeting in this AU could have gone better . . . but isn't it practically a rule that two heroes meeting for the first time in any kind of sketchy circumstances have to fight first?

. . . I'm kind of getting more attached to dark!Leo than I meant to. I'm not planning on having him be a main character in this AU, but I might have to give him a bigger role than I'd planned. Not a bigger role than Percy or the Kanes, obviously, but having him around might make things interesting.

But I can't wait until Nico's back. I miss writing from his viewpoint. I need to start writing faster so I can get back to writing about my fav character.


	5. Chapter 5

5

After they got Leo calmed down, and convinced him to crash in one of Brooklyn House's guest rooms for the night, Percy, Annabeth, Anubis, and the Kanes sat down to fill in Jason and Zia on what had happened, and the progress they'd made. Thalia arrived midway through so they had to start over from the beginning, but eventually they got through it all.

When they'd finished, Jason groaned and buried his head in his hands. "Man . . . so I just Tristan McCleaned a kid who's been helping us? Who managed to make more progress in an hour than we've made in two weeks, and then was already getting bullied by some mafioso Egyptian ghost before I tackled him? Now I feel like a jerk."

"What do you mean . . . Tristan McCleaned him?" asked Percy.

"Apparently my little brother is a die-hard Tristan McClean fan," said Thalia.

Annabeth coughed like she was trying to hold back laughter.

Percy looked at her uncertainly. "Hey, isn't Piper's father –"

"A Tristan McClean fan too? In a manner of speaking. That's all we need to say on the subject of Tristan McClean," said Annabeth.

"I need to understand something first," said Percy. "What does it mean to Tristan McClean someone, Jason? I know that if you Chuck Norris them, you roundhouse kick them, usually in the face, or if you full-on Swayze them, you hit them with a haymaker, but to Tristan McClean someone?"

"You just pwn the hell out of them," explained Jason.

"Ah. I see. Ok, back to the topic at hand then . . ."

"I only see one course of action," said Thalia. "A fieldtrip to the Underworld."

"I end up going there so often, I should rent an apartment," muttered Percy.

"Hang on, you've been to the Underworld before?" asked Jason.

"Three times now," said Percy gloomily.

Thalia whistled. "That many?"

"When? How? Why?" asked Zia, looking properly horrified.

"Once to save his mom," said Annabeth. "That was on the quest after Zeus's master bolt was stolen. I was there for that one."

"Once on that sword of Hades quest," added Thalia. "Nico and I were there too."

"Then once more with just Nico, right before the Battle of Manhattan," said Percy.

"What for?" asked Zia.

"Sightseeing." Percy didn't feel like explaining the Curse of Achilles right now. Not to Zia anyway. They were getting along much better these days than they had when they first met, but Percy still felt like he couldn't completely lower his guard around her.

"Complicated tactical measures," said Annabeth, being much more diplomatic than him, as usual. "It would take too long to explain, and it's not relevant now anyway."

"Wow. So, you guys know your way around the Underworld pretty well by now?" asked Jason.

Thalia shook her head. "About as well as you know your way around New York."

Jason grimaced. "That good?"

"It's a vast place. And it's full of dead people. That makes it harder to get around," said Thalia. "Nico's useful there because the dead part for him. We're likely to have to shove our way through the crowds of shades."

"Then there's the nasties to worry about," added Percy.

"Cerberus?" guessed Jason.

"No, Cerberus is the least of our problems," said Percy.

"And he's actually a really nice dog, once you take the time to get to know him," said Annabeth.

"The boat guy then? Charon?" suggested Carter.

"He's not one of the big things we have to worry about either," said Percy. "There are monsters in Hades, and evil spirits. Melinoe, and keres, and who knows what else."

"We'll have to be very careful what we say," added Annabeth. "We don't know who or what will be watching us at any given time."

"We should probably decide who exactly is going," Anubis spoke up.

"I'm in," Sadie said immediately.

"Bad idea," Anubis shot her down just as quickly.

"What? Why is that a bad idea?" demanded Sadie.

"We should restrict this to demigods only," said Anubis. "Sending Egyptian magicians would increase our chances of alerting Nico's father of our presence there."

Sadie looked defiant. "But –"

"He's right," Carter told her. "Remember what happened when Nico sent that jackal familiar to the Underworld?"

"But having us along could be a huge strategic advantage," argued Sadie. "Greek monsters are never really sure what to do with us."

"This risk is too great," said Anubis adamantly.

"Couldn't just one of us go?"

"No. Anubis is right," said Zia. It looked like it physically pained her to say it. "Much as I want to go and help too, I recognize that my presence there would be too great a liability. Yours and Carter's too, Sadie."

"So which of you demigods are going to go?" asked Carter when Sadie didn't say anything else.

"I'm definitely in," said Percy. "I can get us across some of the rivers."

"I'm in for sure," said Jason, immediately after Percy finished speaking. "It would have been me who got my soul severed if not for Nico. This is the least I can do to repay him."  
"If you're going then I am too," said Thalia. "Not that I wouldn't be going anyway. Nico's my friend too."

"So all four of us, plus Leo if we can get him along," said Annabeth.

"Are you certain that is not too many?" asked Anubis. "The more of you who go, the more attention you'll draw."

"If you're keeping your soul to a minimum in Nico, you won't be animating him, which means he won't be walking," pointed out Annabeth. "So we need at least two people who can carry him, in case one of them gets injured to the point where he can't carry any extra weight. The only ones among us who'll be able to carry Nico for long distances are Percy and Jason. Thalia, Leo, and I don't have the build for carrying around that much extra weight, even if Nico is skinny.

"Leo we need because he might be the only one who can get through to Hazel. Thalia will be useful because she's so powerful, and it's always good to have an archer along. And if you think I'm letting the two people I care most about in the world walk into the Underworld without me, then you don't know me at all," concluded Annabeth.

"Plus you're our tactical mastermind," added Percy. "You know all about all the monsters we face."

"And Seaweed Brain there can't function without you," added Thalia.

Percy glared at her but didn't refute it. Thalia took that as license to continue.

"He can't even manage to tie his shoelaces without you to help him, the boy's so lost without you."

"Hey," protested Percy, not really offended, but knowing that unless he said something, she'd keep going.

"When do we leave?" asked Jason.

"When can we leave?" Annabeth asked. "When's good for everyone?"

"I'll go anytime," said Percy. "There's nothing I have that can't be dropped for this."

"Same for me," said Annabeth. "And probably Leo too, since Camp Half-Blood's not that demanding. We'll probably be in a little trouble with Chiron, but . . ."

"If Chiron knows Leo's with us, he'll cut us some slack," said Percy. "Chiron's known us long enough to trust us. He knows if we disappear for a weekend, it's not because we're off partying. Can you believe he actually asked me 'How was the Egyptian apocalypse' the first time he saw me after we Tristan McCleaned Apophis?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"What?" asked Percy.

"Nice," said Jason, holding out his hand for a fist bump. "As for me . . . I have tomorrow and the day after free. After that it'll be hard to get more time for a little while. I have duties to the Legion. I can step down from my position –"

"You shouldn't have to," said Thalia. "In fact, we need you to stay in your position. I have the feeling that the world is going to get a lot smaller, a lot sooner than we think."

"When that time comes, we need people in positions of leadership in every faction that know who the real enemies are," agreed Percy. "That way no one has to get hurt."

"No one innocent anyway," said Thalia. "And tomorrow works for me too, by the way."

"So, tomorrow it is," said Sadie.

"If we can get Leo to come along," said Percy.

"And if we can't?" asked Jason.

"We will," said Sadie. "I can be very persuasive."

"You're not going to threaten him, Sadie," said Percy.

"Who said I was going to?"

"Everyone could tell that was what you meant," said Annabeth, "and Percy's right. If Leo joins us, it has to be because it was his choice. Not because we pressured him into it."

"We need him," said Sadie, her voice hard. "Uncle Vinne specifically said it. And I know that he has his own angle on this, and is trying to manipulate us somehow, but as long as getting Nico back is part of his grand scheme, he's not going to steer us wrong."

"We'll talk to Leo tomorrow morning and go from there," said Zia. She sounded reasonable at least, but the look in her eyes made Percy think her thoughts were more aligned with Sadie's.

"Should we call it a night and rest up then?" asked Jason.

"There is one thing we need to decide on first," said Anubis. "Which of you is going to lead?"

There was an awkward pause. Percy found himself unconsciously sizing up Thalia and Jason, and saw them doing the same to him. He hadn't realized until now what a potential problem this was going to be. A team couldn't have three leaders. But Percy, Thalia, and Jason were all natural born leaders. He distinctly remembered clashing with Thalia when she went to Camp Half-Blood. They had worked together alright on their last quest in Hades, but the dynamics were different this time, and the stakes even higher.

And Annabeth too was a leader, Percy remembered, looking at his girlfriend. She was good at it, though she didn't take to it the way Thalia, Jason, and Percy all did. Not for lack of talent or ability. More for lack of wanting to. Percy thought that she enjoyed being a tactician more than a leader, but right now, he realized that she might be the best one for this particular job. Who else but his genius girlfriend could keep three children of the Big Three with alpha personalities in line?

"It's got to be you, Annabeth," he said.

He was surprised when Thalia immediately backed him up. "You're the best one for it," the Hunter said.

"This is my first trip to the Underworld," said Jason. "Probably better if I stand aside and let someone with more experience lead. And if both Percy and Sis say you're the woman for the job, then no doubt you are."

"Wow," commented Sadie. "I didn't think we'd get through that particular decision without someone spilling blood."

Annabeth looked at each of her fellow demigods in turn, her grey eyes serious. "You know that if you're picking me, you're agreeing to obey me. You can't just change your mind and do whatever you want when it's convenient."

"We know," said Thalia. "We're not children anymore."

"I know the three of us have egos as big as Mt. Olympus," said Jason with an easy smile, "but we all know this quest is even bigger than that. I think we're all mature enough to put our pride aside for this."

"We want you to lead, Annabeth," said Percy. "We'll do what you order."

"Alright then," said Annabeth. "I accept leadership of this quest. "

* * *

Leo woke early, even though he'd gone to bed so late. The sun had only been up for maybe an hour, he guessed as he looked out the window. He sat in bed for a little while, thinking. Just thinking. Some days, very randomly, he'd have spells of clarity where his ADHD wasn't bugging out of control, making him twitch, and constantly need to move, and mentally calculate how to blow up every electronic device in the room. Now was one of those times.

He knew what he was going to do. Honestly, he'd known all along, deep down. Even when he was arguing with Setne and convincing himself he wasn't a hero. Which he wasn't. He had no plans to tell Percy, Annabeth, or any of the others about what Setne had said about his ultimate plan. Yeah, true there wasn't much to tell. It was a small scrap of information, and it wasn't going to affect this particular quest one way or the other, but keeping it secret made Leo feel devious, and part of him liked that feeling. If the real heroes didn't really want him on their side, then fine. Leo would be on his own side. It would be easier that way.

When restlessness started settling back in, Leo got up and carefully opened his door. He looked out cautiously, remembering what had happened the night before. He didn't want to get tackled or accused of spying again. When he saw no one, he stepped out of his room and walked slowly through the hallway, keeping an eye out for anyone who he might have to explain his presence there too. He wasn't really sure what he was looking for. Maybe his fellow demigods, or Sadie and Carter, the friendlier Egyptians. What he ended up finding was the kitchen. Who he ended up finding there was Jason.

He paused at the room's threshold, not sure if he should slink away before he was noticed, or announce himself so Jason wouldn't think he'd been spying and tackle him again. Jason seemed to feel Leo's gaze on him however, and looked up before Leo could decide.

For several very long seconds the two demigods just stared at each other.

_Awkward, awkward, awkward-awkward-awkward_, thought Leo. That seemed to be the only word he was capable of thinking, so with nothing else to do, he said it out loud. "Awkward."

"Yeah, tell me about it," said Jason.

"Annabeth or the Kanes aren't up by any chance?" asked Leo.

"No. We were up late, making plans. I'm only up because it's kind of hard-wired into me to get up early," said Jason.

"Some kind of military training?" guessed Leo, noting Jason's military-style haircut and his ridiculous muscles.

"Yeah," said Jason.

This conversation could have been going much worse. Especially since the last time they'd met, Jason had tackled Leo and Leo had set Jason on fire. When taking that into consideration, this new conversation was actually going very, very well.

"Leo . . . about last night . . ." started Jason.

Well, it had been going well.

"I'm sorry. I didn't fully understand the situation and I jumped the gun," said Jason. "I was out of line."

"What?" Leo stared at him.

"I was out of line," repeated Jason, "and I'm sorry. Percy, Annabeth, and the Kane siblings filled me in on what happened before I got there."

"Oh. Well, I'm sorry I set you on fire," said Leo. "I really didn't mean to."

Jason's face twisted like he'd just bit into a lemon. Oops, maybe Leo shouldn't have mentioned that.

"So you did set me on fire?"

Leo looked at his feet and muttered, "Not on purpose."

"How?" asked Jason. "Some kind of spell?"

"Not exactly," said Leo. "It's just . . . complicated."

"Any chance you can un-complicate it?" asked Jason.

"Not this early in the morning." Phrasing it that way seemed polite than flat out refusing, which Leo would do next if Jason pushed the issue. Thankfully, Jason seemed to understand. And seemed to be sincere in his desire to put the past behind them.

"Okay then. Want some cereal?" he asked, motioning to the box beside him. "Sadie and Carter always say to help myself to anything when I'm here. I'm sure that applies to you too."

Refusing twice in a row would be too rude, and besides, Leo was hungry. "Sure," he said and pulled up a stool beside Jason.

They ate their Captain Crunch in silence. Relative silence. Ok, the crunching sounds it made as they ate it were pretty loud but whatever.

"So, Annabeth's going to want to talk to you when she gets up," said Jason when he finished his bowl. "We elected her the leader for our quest. I say our quest, but it's completely up to you –"

"I'm coming," said Leo.

"What?"

"You heard me." Leo finished chewing his mouthful of Captain Crunch then swallowed it. "I'm going with you. Coming with you. Whatever."

Jason looked pleased. "What made you change your mind?"

"A lot of reasons. Three major ones," said Leo.

"Care to share?"

Leo frowned.

"If you don't want to, it's ok," said Jason. "I was just curious."

"I don't want Nico to die. I don't have many friends." That was one of Leo's major reasons. The only one he was going to tell Jason. That this was a stepping stone to his vengeance would not go over well, so Leo would be keeping that to himself.

* * *

It was midmorning when their full team assembled. All five demigods, their three magician allies, and the one godling/magician. Annabeth began briefing them of the plan once they were all together.

"We'll be entering through Orpheus's door since it's closest, and there's less security. We can avoid Charon that way, and probably Cerberus too. Also, we'll be bringing Percy's dog," Annabeth told them.

"Dog? What dog? Why?" asked Jason looking bemused as Thalia stifled a giggle.

"He has a pet hellhound," Leo told him. "And he named it Mrs. O'Leary."

"Her name is Mrs. O'Leary. She's a girl, not an it," said Percy defensively. "And I didn't name her."

Jason looked back and forth between them. "I can't tell if you're joking or not."

"They're not," said Annabeth. "And having Mrs. O'Leary along should make things easier for us. We can ride her and she can help with fighting if we come across something nasty."

"Which we will," said Thalia. "There's no shortage of nasty somethings in the Underworld."

"Percy thinks he can guide us to the Fields of Asphodel," continued Annabeth. "He's been there the most out of all of us, except Nico. So he knows his way around the best. We're going in and we're going to move as fast as we can. Our pace is going to be the equivalent of a forced march. The less time we spend there, the better. That's less time for us to be attacked by dark and restless spirits and less time for Nico's father to figure out that there are demigods trespassing in his realm.

"Once we're in the Fields of Asphodel, we'll split into two groups. Percy, Mrs. O'Leary, and I will be in one group. Thalia, Jason, and Leo in the other. Thalia will be in charge of her group. No offense, Jason, but I know what moves Thalia will make. I don't know what you'll do. Or you, Leo," said Annabeth.

Leo shrugged. "Even I don't know what I'll do."

"Our goal will be to find Hazel Levesque, or whatever is left of her. What we know about her is that she is a very attractive African American girl, aged . . . thirteen, you said, Anubis?"

Anubis nodded. "And she has curly, cinnamon colored hair and bright golden eyes."

"We don't know what sort of shape she'll be in when we find her," said Annabeth, "but we hope that there will be enough of who she once was left for us to get through to her and convince her to help her brother. That's where you come in, Leo. If our words don't reach her, hopefully the fact that you look like her first love will get through to her. We need to convince her to take a look at Nico's heart scarab and figure out how to get his soul out of it and back into his body where it belongs. Once that's done, we head out the way we came, as quickly as possible. If for some reason we cannot get out that way, we have a backup plan for how to get out. Melinoe's Cave. Percy and Thalia assure me it will be nasty, so hopefully it won't come to that. Any questions?"

"Yeah," said Leo. "You left out something important. How do we get Hazel out of there?"

Everyone stared at him.

"What? What did I say?"

"Leo, we're not going there to get Hazel out," said Annabeth. "We're going there to get her to restore Nico's soul."

"But . . . you just want to leave her there?" demanded Leo.

"We don't know how to get her out, even if we wanted to," said Thalia.

"Which we do," snapped Leo.

"Maybe, but we can't just take her out," Thalia shot back.

"Why not?"

"Because she's Had – Plu – She's the Wealthy One's daughter. If she goes missing, I'm pretty sure he'll notice, then we will really catch hell," said Annabeth.

"But we can't just leave her there," argued Leo.

"She's not alive anymore, Leo," said Percy, though he looked troubled. "She was judged and sentenced to her fate."

"She doesn't deserve that fate!"

"I agree," said Anubis, "but I am afraid that is not for you or me to decide."

"Oh, this is great," said Leo disgustedly. "This is just rich. You want me to go down into the Underworld and play with the heart of some poor girl who got completely screwed over by the gods, died a hero, then got herself sentenced to the Fields of Asphodel to save her mother? You want me to mess with her head, and her heart, and get her to help us, then _leave her there?"_

"I'm sorry," said Annabeth. "I guess we weren't clear, but we're not going there to save her, Leo. We can't save her."

"We're not even going to try?" demanded Leo, his temper flaring.

"Oh gods, Leo, you're burning!" shouted Sadie. "Percy, quick, get water!"

Everyone's eyes flew to Leo, who realized belatedly that he was in fact on fire. He concentrated on smothering the flames. "Don't get water. It's not necessary."

"Ok, time out. What in Artemis's name is that?" demanded Thalia. "You had flames flickering around you. You're still smoking. What gives?"

"Nothing!" snapped Leo.

"Liar."

"Nothing I'm going to tell you," he amended.

"Leo," said Annabeth, looking at him with her big grey eyes. "This seems important. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing is going on with me," said Leo. "Just forget it."

"You're a fire user, aren't you?" asked Jason.

Everyone turned to look at him.

"There are legends of them in the Roman camp," said Jason. "Children of Vulcan with the power to summon fire, and immunity to fire. One of them was a hero during the fall of Rome. He was actually the one who burnt down the city when it became clear that all was lost, controlling the fire so that escape routes were left open for our people, and turning the flames on our enemies."

They turned back to stare at Leo.

"Why didn't you say something about that?" asked Percy.

"Because it's no one else's business," he said sulkily.

"It's something I should have known for tactical purposes," said Annabeth. "I need to know everyone's combat abilities so I can form the best possible plan. And this isn't the time to be keeping secrets."

"Pot, meet kettle," Leo told her.

"Alright, fair point," admitted Annabeth, "but Leo, things like this, you need to tell us."

"Not really," said Leo. "I don't plan on having a lot of teamups like this. I'm not asking anyone else here to throw all their secrets out on the table. Hephaestus only knows what else you guys are trying to hide. I'll be keeping my secrets to myself. But I will tell you this."

He looked right at Jason, locking his dark eyes on Jason's baby blues. "I told you there were three major reasons I decided to go along with you. And that one reason was Nico. Well, another one was Hazel. Because I heard Anubis's story about what happened to her. And I can empathize with her about some freaking gods playing, well, god with her fate, treating her like a pawn and ruining her life. And I know what it's like to be trapped somewhere hellish, maybe not for decades, but sometimes it seemed like that. I know what it's like to pray for help, or a hero, or for someone to come and save you. But for me, no one ever came."

"Leo –"

"And here's one thing I will not be keeping secret, you'll be happy to know," said Leo. "I plan on saving Hazel Levesque. I don't plan on leaving her in the Fields of Asphodel. If you don't approve, fine. We'll part ways down there, after I've done what you brought me along to do."

Everyone stared at him. They seemed a bit scared to speak. Leo had to check and make sure he wasn't on fire again. Smoke was rising from his skin, but there were no flames, thankfully. Then, finally, Percy spoke.

"We're going to have a hell of a time convincing Nico to leave Hazel behind too, if I know Nico. Family is everything to him. He's not going to leave Hazel willingly. And honestly, I don't want to either."

"Seconded," said Jason. "Her situation sounded completely messed up. I wouldn't feel right leaving it like that."

"I don't like it either," said Thalia cautiously, "but we have to think about what the consequences of this could mean. She's the Wealthy One's daughter. He's going to know if we take her."

"If I may speak," said Anubis, "I don't pretend to be an expert at interpreting her father's moods, or predicting his behavior, but I think he might be inclined to look the other way in this case. The Wealthy One does love his children. He'd never admit it, but he does."

"Alright, look," said Annabeth, "What if we set this matter aside for now, and wait until we've gotten Nico's soul back to decide how we can best help Hazel. If anyone can figure out how to get a soul out of the Underworld, it's him. Unless, I don't suppose you can take a look at his memories, Anubis, and see if he knows a way?"

"He doesn't," said Anubis. "Aside from trading one soul for another. But he may be able to figure something out when confronted with the problem anew. His powers have grown by leaps and bounds since the last time he had a reason to want to bring someone who'd died back to life. Many times when he's learned to do something new, it's been by instinct. I may have access to his memories, but his instincts are all his own."

"I can attest to that," agreed Percy. "You don't fight a thing like him when we spar."

"So are we agreed, for now?" asked Annabeth. "We'll solve the problem of how to save Hazel when we come to it, and when we have Nico back to help us with it."

All eyes went to Leo again, and he realized this was the best he could hope for right now.

"Agreed."

* * *

AN: Next chapter: the descent into the Underworld begins!


	6. Chapter 6

6

It was dark, and it was cold, and Nico had no idea where he was. What he did know was that he was alone. That fact seemed worse than every other factor of his predicament put together.

_Anubis?_ he asked as soon as he became aware that he was both conscious, and somewhere unfamiliar. The thought practically echoed in the emptiness of his mind, as he realized Anubis wasn't there. Panic flared through Nico. He tried again. _ANUBIS!_

No answer.

_"ANUBIS!"_ Nico screamed in his mind and out loud. His voice came out odd. Like sound wasn't meant to exist in this place he found himself now, this frigid, dark abyss. He felt like he was floating in a void. Or a black hole.

Somehow he knew that nothing was meant to be here. This wasn't a real place. This wasn't really anything. It was . . . like the opposite of existence. Dark matter. The destructive power that trumped both order and chaos, life and death. It was the end of everything. A force whose only purpose was the destruction of everything.

_The End of Days,_ whispered something in his mind, and Nico couldn't help but remember that damned prophecy. Was this really what The End of Days meant, he wondered? Was he meant to unleash this force upon the world?

"No!" shouted Nico. He tried to back away, but he was in the middle of the void. There was nowhere to back away. "That is not my destiny! I would never do that! Never! Anubis! Anubis, can you hear me? HELP!"

His voice didn't echo. It was more like it was sucked away faster than it should have been. Like if he was trying to talk while shadow traveling, and the sound couldn't keep up at the speed he was moving. Only here it was more like the sound couldn't keep up with the rate of decomposition. Everything that existed was quickly devoured here. Nico didn't know why he hadn't been yet.

"It's like my blood," he realized aloud. He spoke even though he knew his words would be snatched away by the nothingness as soon as he spoke them. This place destroyed everything except for him. Just like his blood rotted away everything except for him. Metal, stone, wood, plastic, glass, flesh, and bone. His blood tore through it all, but he realized that compared to this place, his blood wasn't nearly as potent as he'd thought. His blood was like a diluted form of this power. Or like someone had diluted this power into his blood, pumped just a little into it, and that was enough to turn his blood into necrotic acid. But this place could rot away the whole damn world. It could rot away all of existence.

"Anubis! Percy! Sadie! Someone!" screamed Nico. "Help me! Get me out of here!"

He needed to get out now. He didn't know how he hadn't been destroyed by this place already, but he knew he couldn't stay there. If he did, it would drive him insane. Seeing this destructive power was like staring into an abyss . . . and realizing that the abyss was staring right back into him.

* * *

"This is it," said Percy without much enthusiasm. "The Door of Orpheus."

He turned when he heard Sadie giggle. Even though the Egyptians weren't coming with them into the Underworld, they'd come along to the door to see them off.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing. I was just thinking," said Sadie. "This is right near where we met Nico for the first time."

"That seems like so long ago," said Carter.

"Yeah," said Percy. "And he was just coming out of the Underworld then. He'd used this very door. Persephone was driving him crazy. He'd just wandered out and was walking around, trying to figure out what to do and where to go –"

"When I jumped off those rocks and landed right on top of him," said Sadie.

"You didn't jump, you fell," Carter reminded her.

"Whatever. It was a lucky coincidence."

That was how this whole mess had started. Percy wondered if the fact that they were back here now meant that they were about to finish it all. Somehow he doubted that. This story didn't feel like it was coming to a head, the way it felt when they'd beaten Kronos or Apophis. He hoped he was wrong, and that they'd get a happy ending to this whole mess as well soon too, but in his heart he knew he wasn't. Their troubles with this inter-pantheon war waiting to happen weren't over yet. Not by a long shot.

"I guess I better call Mrs. O'Leary now," said Percy. "At least she'll be happy to be going into the Underworld."

"How exactly does one call a hellhound?" asked Jason. "I'd like to know so that I can make sure to never do that."

Percy laughed then put two fingers in his mouth and whistled.

"Coincidentally, you get a hellhound the exact same way you get a cab," said Leo with an impish smile on his face. "Or is that a coincidence?"

"I wonder," said Sadie.

There was a blur of shadows, then Mrs. O'Leary appeared and nearly tackled Percy.

"Whoa, girl, settle down," said Percy. He noticed Jason tensed, his hand in his pocket where he kept his coin, ready to turn it into a weapon. Percy could understand why. It was hard to get used to the concept of good monsters.

"Big dog," commented Jason. He was making an obvious effort to stay calm and not go on the attack.

"I almost shot it the first time I met it," said Thalia.

"No, you almost shot me," Percy reminded her.

"So how do we open this?" asked Leo, getting them back on topic. He had one hand pressed against the door. "My Hephaestus senses can't feel any sort of locking mechanism, which means there's no key. And if a door's not mechanically locked, it means it's magically locked. So what's the secret?"

"The secret is song," Percy told him.

"Song?"

"Yes. One of us is going to have to sing to open it."

"Not it," said Jason immediately.

"I'm not exactly musically inclined either," said Thalia.

"Can anyone here sing?" asked Annabeth.

There was awkward silence as they all looked at each other.

"I could cobble together something that can play music, but I don't have any song recordings," said Leo. "I'm not sure if I should try intercepting radio signals . . ."

"I don't think a recording would work anyway," said Annabeth. "So no one here can sing? No one?"

"What about you, Roman boy?" asked Sadie. "Don't you Roman cavalries have choirs or something, like in that Cold Play song?"

"You're basing your knowledge of Romans off a Cold Play song?" asked Jason. "And no. And even if there was one, I wouldn't be in it. Trust me, if I try singing, that door's going to sink into the ground to get away from my voice."

"Same," said Thalia.

"I can't carry a tune for love or money," admitted Annabeth. "Percy?"

"I made Grover open it last time, with his pipes."

"Ha. I wish Pipes was here," muttered Leo. "All she'd have to do is say 'Open Sesame!' and the door would open. Oh, well. I guess there's no help for it."

"Help for what?" asked Annabeth. "We can't go to Camp and get her, you know. That would be . . ." She trailed off because Leo had started humming, like he was testing his voice's pitch. Then he started singing.

_ "Hay amados en la gloria que son facil olvidar. Cuando termine tu historia te uniras a su lugar?"_

The song was clearly some sort of gospel song. It sounded familiar, but Percy didn't know enough about church music or hymns to know which song it was. Maybe if Leo was singing in English he would have known, but since the words were Spanish, the tune was all Percy had to go on. But Leo had a surprisingly good singing voice. A nice, clear tenor, and almost immediately, the Door of Orpheus started sliding open.

_"Se rompera este ciclo quizas mas tarde, quizas? Habra un lugar esperando alla en el cielo, lo habra?_ Alright, door's open, let's go."

Those few lines were all it took, then the door was completely open.

"And if anyone says anything about my singing, at all, good or bad, I will light your pants on fire. See if I don't," warned Leo, lighting up his fist like a torch, then stomping into the darkness.

* * *

The descent was made a little bit awkward by Leo's dark mood. Percy could kind of understand why he was upset. Everyone had things they were self conscious about, even though sometimes those were things they were good at. Sometimes being good at something meant you got teased about it. Or maybe Leo was annoyed because he was expecting choir boy jokes, or expecting to have his masculinity mocked for having such a good singing voice.

No one mentioned anything about it though, even though Percy didn't think that his threat about lighting their pants on fire had been serious. If Leo was the kind of guy who would do something like that, he wouldn't have bothered keeping his fire powers secret in the first place.

They made it into the realm of Hades itself with little trouble. Percy guessed that even most denizens of the underworld were hesitant to attack a group of six clearly powerful demigods, being escorted by a hellhound.

He took a few moments to reorient himself with the gloomy land, then pointed in the direction he was mostly sure was the right way.

"If I remember right, it's in sight of the lord of this realm's palace," said Percy, taking care not to invoke Hades's name. "Just in sight of it, but barely. We'll have to cross the River Lethe to get there, but that shouldn't be a problem."

"Which river is Lethe again?" asked Leo looking suspicious.

"The River of Forgetfulness," Annabeth told him.

"The one that souls drink from to blank out all their memories before they're reborn?" asked Leo.

"The same."

"How is that not a problem?" demanded Leo. "That seems like a horribly big problem!"

"Seaweed Brain there can control the river, doofus," said Thalia.

"Oh. Well, he could have said that," said Leo. He let the flame around his hand go out, probably because though it was gloomy, there was enough light to see by. Percy didn't really understand how, since there was no light source and no sunlight, but decided not to think too deeply on it. If he really wanted to know, he could ask Nico once they got him back.

They began making their way in the direction Percy pointed out for them, mostly in silence. There were a few monsters that came within eyeshot of their group, but ultimately, all of them kept their distance.

"Is anyone else getting the feeling that this is too easy?" asked Thalia when they were about halfway there.

"Yeah, but I was hoping that was just me and my preconceived notions of this place," admitted Jason, looking warily around them like he thought they might have just jinxed themselves.

"The Underworld isn't that much more densely populated with monsters than the upper world," said Percy. "I think there are actually a lot less monsters in the main part. Or maybe Had- the lord here keeps them on a tight leash."

"Nico did say his father reigned in a lot of the worst creatures here," remembered Thalia from their quest for Hades' sword. Aside from Ethan Nakamura and that Titan, the only thing they'd really had to fight were those keres. They had been bad enough.

"The security measures are the thing that makes coming here, and leaving, hard," said Percy. "Nico makes it seem easy, but . . . well, we'll be OK. He'll be with us when we leave, and even if something happens, we know two ways out of here."

"I still think we should have bought the guidebook," said Leo.

"There's a guidebook for this place?" asked Jason.

"Heck if I know. I was just making conversation."

"It's better if we make as little noise as possible," said Thalia, with a little bit of edge to her voice. There probably would have been a lot more if one of the boys making the noise wasn't her precious baby brother.

"Come on," said Percy. "Let's keep moving."

Then he almost grimaced, remembering that leading was supposed to be Annabeth's job. He wasn't very good at taking the back seat, but no one seemed to notice his slip.

They continued on, to the River Lethe, where Percy was able to hold back the river as he had the last time he and Thalia were there. It was much easier this time, without a shoulder injury that was festering with ungodly speed. The enchanted water still fought him, but his control over it was much stronger.

After that, they walked in the direction that Percy had come to think of as north, even though he doubted a compass would reflect that. But it was the direction of Hades' palace, which was visible even from a great distance, like Mt. Doom or something. The Fields of Asphodel lay sprawled before it for miles and miles. As they approached, Percy felt his heart sink, as the enormity of their task started to sink in. There were so many souls in the fields. It was worse than Times Square at New Year's. The ones further away looked like ants, they appeared so small and the fields stretched so wide. Some milled about aimlessly, while others remained stationary, but whatever they chose, they were all dark, colorless, and somehow inhuman, even though they were actual human souls.

"How are we ever going to find her in there?" asked Thalia.

"This is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack," agreed Jason.

"What if . . . what if we did something to raise a ruckus?" asked Leo.

"Come again?"

"Well, the souls here lose more than just their memories, right? If I remember our lessons right, this is like purgatory, and everyone here except a few special cases will forget their mortal life, and everything that makes them who they are, and just exist here without any purpose or anything," said Leo. "Hazel's obviously going to be one of those special cases. Or at least Sidney believes she is, otherwise me coming here would be pointless. So what if we cause some kind of fuss? Or what would be a fuss if these were normal people here? Anyone who's still got their . . . I don't know, sense of self? Well, anyone who still has that should come to check out the disturbance, right?"

Percy looked at Annabeth to see what she thought of this plan. It sounded good to him, but he could tell by his girlfriend's expression that she had seen some flaw that hadn't occurred to him yet.

"That's risky," she said after thinking it over. "The palace is right there."

"It's miles away."

"Which doesn't mean we're safe. And what kind of disturbance did you have in mind?"

Leo shrugged. "Throw a few fireballs. Or the Wonder Twins can toss out some lightning. Just something bright and flashy that will attract anyone who's still mostly human's attention."

"It might also attract the attention of my old math teacher," muttered Percy. "Or possibly something worse."

"Yes," agreed Annabeth. "We can't forget that there are many dangerous things here. The Kindly Ones are something we have to watch out for. We can't do anything too flashy."

Leo's shoulders slumped slightly. "Don't tell me we have to go through and look at them all one by one."

"You could just try a less flashy way of getting their attention," suggested Jason.

"What's that?"

"The same way you opened Orpheus's Door," Jason told him.

Leo scowled. "Didn't I tell you I didn't want to hear about that again?"

"I'm not making fun of you, man," said Jason, "but you have a good voice. If I was stuck here, day in and day out, for all eternity, but suddenly I heard a voice like yours, singing like you did to get that door open, I don't think I'd be able to help but come check it out."

"And if all these lost souls feel that way?" asked Leo. "I don't want to be the freaking Pied Piper of zombie souls."

"If they all start flocking to you, then just stop singing," suggested Thalia. "They'll probably forget all about your voice within minutes anyway."

"What do you think, Annabeth?" asked Percy, anxious to know her thoughts. It sounded like a viable plan to him, but so did Leo's plan of causing a ruckus.

"I don't think we'll lose anything by trying," said Annabeth. "With the exception of maybe a little time, but I'll be thinking of another plan in case this one fails, so that's really no loss. Let's try it."

Leo gave a grudging look. "I don't suppose anyone else is going to volunteer to sing this time either?"

"Suck it up, already, boy," said Thalia, batting the back of his head.

Instead of protesting without really seeming offended, Leo glowered at her, or at all of them, really.

"I meant what I said earlier. This isn't something I want anyone talking to me about once this whole mess is over," said Leo. "That means no ribbing, no complimenting, and no gossiping. Unless you need me to sing to save someone's soul again, I don't ever want to hear about this again. Understood?"

"Yes. We understand," said Annabeth. "Now start singing, already."

Leo crossed his arms and glared at them all now. Percy thought he understood why.

"I swear, Leo. I won't mention this unless it's important," he said. "I won't swear on the Styx, because that might call more attention than we want right now, but if you want, once we're back above ground –"

"Swearing on the Styx isn't necessary. I just want you guys to take this seriously," said Leo, shifting his glare away from Percy, but to all the others.

Annabeth sighed then stood a little straighter. "I'm sorry, Leo. I shouldn't have brushed you off like that. I will take your request seriously. I won't mention this to anyone unless it's absolutely necessary."

"Same," said Thalia. "I promise."

"You have my word as well," agreed Jason.

Finally, Leo nodded and began walking to the edge of the Fields of Asphodel. "Keep a couple lightning bolts at the ready in case these things start mobbing me or something."

"Will do," promised Jason.

Leo paused right before he reached the field's edge and gave one self conscious backwards glance at them. Then he started to sing again.

* * *

I'm about to start college, so this is probably the last update for this month. I'll be back in September, which isn't that far off, but for now I have to focus on finding my way around and getting off to a good start in all my classes.

My head-canon is that Leo learned to sing at church, and has a nice tenor, which he would rather people not know about, because singing reminds him of his old life, before his mom died. So under normal circumstances, he pretends he can't sing, but if someone's soul is on the line, he'll do what he has to do to save them. The song he's singing is "Will the Circle be Unbroken" in Spanish. And he's singing it more like a hymn or a funeral song, than like a bluegrass song. The translation in this fic is from the version HelenaHacheChan on YouTube sings. That might be her translation of the lyrics as well, but I don't know enough Spanish to read her description of the song, so I don't know for certain, but I'm trying to give credit where credit's due. (And yes, I did pick this song because it was in Bioshock Infinite, but it fits Leo's position a little too well)

And sorry if it seems like they got there too easily. I promise they'll have plenty of problems getting out to make up for that, since that really is the biggest problem about the Underworld. Getting out of it.


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I recommend listening to the Bioshock Infinite soundtrack's version of "Will the Circle be Unbroken" while reading the first part of this chappie. You can listen to it on YouTube. It's actually the one at the top of the list of search results when you type the song title in. Just make sure you get the full version, because it's more emotionally charged than the choral version.

* * *

7

"_There are loved ones in the glory_

_Whose dear forms you often miss._

_When you close your earthly story_

_Will you join them in their bliss?_

_Will the circle be unbroken?_

_By and by? By and by?_

_Is a better home awaiting _

_In the sky . . . in the sky . . ."_

Leo decided to sing in English for one simple reason: he could only remember the first and last verses of the song in Spanish. He could remember four of the verses in English. But if anyone asked, he'd claim it was because he'd thought it was more likely Hazel would take note if he was singing in English. Since presumably Hazel spoke English.

And "Will the Circle be Unbroken" was the longest song he had memorized. His ADHD made it hard for him to memorize most things, so even though he'd sung in a choir right up until his mother died, he only really had a few songs memorized.

His voice hitched at the thought of his mother, and how she'd drug him to choir practice every week. He'd hated it so much. Now he'd give anything just to have her drag him there one more time.

"_You remember songs of heaven_

_Which you sang with childish voice_

_Do you love the hymns they taught you_

_Or are songs of earth your choice?_

_Will the circle be unbroken?_

_By and by? By and by?_

_Is a better home awaiting _

_In the sky . . . in the sky . . ."_

Some of the ghosts were starting to pay attention now, Leo noticed. That fact made him a little nervous. Having dead people paying attention to you was never a good thing. He'd learned that from the movies. Many were ignoring him, but some were definitely turning their faces toward him. A few were even moving toward him as he wove his way amongst the crowd of souls. They were the ones in more modern clothes, he realized. Souls who'd been in the fields of Asphodel less time, most likely. The further into the crowd he went, the fewer souls there were paying attention to him, and the more outdated their styles of clothing were. He passed the dated looks of the nineties, then the eighties. The seventies and the sixties kind of blended together for him. He hadn't been a good enough student to be able to tell their differences, but he did start noticing a lot of soldiers in addition to the bellbottom-wearing hippies.

That made him sad, the sight of all those soldiers. He wondered what they'd done to end up there. Had they died before managing to do any great deeds in battle? Or had they done something awful, and didn't have enough good deeds to balance them out? He didn't remember much about the wars during that era, but he could recall one of his better teachers saying something about both sides doing terrible things to each other, because they were under orders, or they had to do them to survive. Leo hoped he'd never end up in a situation like that. It was a relief that very few of the souls of this era showed any interest in him, and none of them started following him.

"_You can picture happy gatherings_

_Round the fireside, long ago . . ._

_And you think of tearful partings_

_When they left you hear below._

_Will the circle be unbroken?_

_By and by? By and by?_

_Is a better home awaiting _

_In the sky . . . in the sky . . ."_

The fifties came next. Poodle skirts and leather jackets. Those were easy to identify. And Leo had loved _The Outsiders_. It was one of the few books he managed to make it to the end of. The forties came next, and again, there were many uniformed soldiers, most with a familiar, infamous insignia blazoned somewhere on them. But it surprised Leo how many un-uniformed people there were from this era in the Fields of Asphodel. Had they been soldiers who died out of uniform? No . . . About half of those out of uniform were women. Nazi sympathizers and supporters? Possibly, but not all of them looked German. Their clothing styles were different, or at least that's what Leo thought. He wasn't an expert by any means, but it looked to him like they were from a number of different European countries. Maybe they were Nazi informants, people who turned in Jews in the nations that Germany conquered. Or maybe people who just stepped back and did nothing to help their Jewish neighbors when the Nazis came. Leo was pretty sure that doing nothing when someone needed help counted as an act worthy of punishment, or at least it was if there was any justice left in the universe.

He remembered how his family had abandoned him to foster care after his mother's death . . . how they'd given him to strangers and said they never wanted to see him again, and called him a devil. That had hurt more than he'd ever admit. He also remembered going to school with bruises and black eyes, picked up in his foster homes, and how his teachers had turned blind eyes to them, and social workers always seemed disinterested when he tried to tell them. His voice wavered as he came to the last verse. And his heart dropped as he realized that no one from this era was showing any interest in the song. He didn't see one head so much as turn his way. But this was where Hazel should have been, wasn't it? She'd died in the forties. So this was her era. What if she wasn't one of the special souls who didn't lose her memories and sense of self?

"_One by one their seats were emptied_

_And one by one, they went away_

_Now the family is parted_

_Will it be complete one day?_

Despair was bitter on Leo's tongue as he began the chorus one final time. Had this all been for nothing? He felt like the universe's biggest idiot, coming all the way to the Fields of Asphodel and singing his heart out for a bunch of dead people. Singing such an emotionally charged song, even. In front of people he actually respected. Living people, that was. He did not want Percy and Annabeth seeing him break down when this didn't work. Thalia or Jason either. Well, Thalia already thought that he was only one evolutionary step past pond-scum, so her opinion of him wouldn't change, but Jason seemed like an ok guy. And now he'd think Leo was a sissy.

_Will the circle be unbroken?_

_By and by? By and by?_

_Is a better home awaiting _

_In the sky . . . in the –"_

A hand wrapped around Leo's wrist and made him jump. He was jerked forcibly around and suddenly found himself staring into a pair of luminous, tear filled, sunshine golden eyes.

_"Sky?"_ he squeaked the last word of the song, probably earning himself the award for worst closing of that particular hymn in all of history. He coughed to cover his embarrassment. It made perfect sense that a pretty girl was there to witness this. And this golden-eyed girl who was staring at him with both wonder and horror and had to be Hazel was even more beautiful than Anubis had said.

"Sammy?" she asked, her voice a little bit squeaky too.

"I, uh, no," said Leo. "I'm not –"

"God, please no!" screamed Hazel suddenly, flinging Leo's hand away. "Father, please, take him back! Please, don't put him here! He doesn't deserve it! Please! I beg you, take him back!"

"What?" Leo stared. This was the worst rejection he'd ever gotten. Even more so since he hadn't even asked Hazel out. Then it dawned on him what her problem actually was. "No, Hazel, I'm not Sammy!"

"Take him back! _Take him back!"_

_"I'm not Sammy! My name is Leo!"_ he screamed to be heard over her.

Hazel stopped her racket and stared back at him. "How can you not be Sammy?" she asked finally. "You have to be Sammy."

"I'm not. I'm Leo. Your boyfriend Sammy wasn't sentenced to this, so you don't have to worry," said Leo. "I wasn't sentenced here either, by the way. For the moment, at least, I'm still alive."

"You are," said Hazel, her eyes filling with wonder. "That's why your hand was so warm. But . . . why are you here?"

Leo licked his lips. This was going to be the hard part. He'd never been a good negotiator, or good at reaching people, and Hazel had been through so much in both life and death. She had absolutely no reason to trust him.

"First, I swear that I'm not just here to use you. But I do need your help. But in return, I'm going to try to help you," said Leo. He spoke too quickly and was sure that all his words were jumbled together.

"I don't understand," said Hazel. "What help could I possibly be to you?"

"Your powers," said Leo.

Hazel flinched.

"I'm sorry," he said immediately. "I know . . . what happened to you. And I am so, so sorry to have to ask you to use them again, after what those gods did to you. How they made you use your powers . . . and how . . . how it ended up destroying you. I know you probably won't believe me, but I know what that's like. When I was eight . . ."

Somehow the story spilled past Leo's lips. How he'd lived with his mother until her death. Her death that he and his powers had caused when that dirt witch came to the machine shop and locked his mother in. And how Leo had started the blaze that killed her when he was trying to save her. Then what happened afterward: the rest of his family getting rid of him, the foster homes and abusive foster parents, and life on the streets, always on the run. Sometime during the story, Hazel took his hand. Her touch was cold, but Leo didn't pull away. Almost unconsciously, he wrapped his fingers around hers.

"So yeah . . . I know what it's like to have powers that are a double edged sword, and what it's like when the gods decide to royally screw up your life," finished Leo, feeling like an idiot and a pansy as he realized he was crying. And Hazel's eyes had teared over again too. Just great. He hated seeing girls cry.

"I'm sorry," said Hazel. "I'm so sorry for what happened to you."

"And I'm sorry for what happened to you," said Leo. "You didn't deserve that."

"Neither of us did," said Hazel, bowing her head.

They stood in silence for a few moments. Then a cough behind him alerted Leo to the fact that they had company. He spun around and his jaw dropped to see all his companions standing there behind him. And from their expressions, he was pretty sure they'd heard his whole confession.

He clenched his jaw and turned his face away, trying to compose himself. Angry tears continued to flow though, so he covered his face with the hand that wasn't holding Hazel's.

"Leo . . ." one of them started to say.

"Stay away from him!" shouted Hazel. She didn't let go of his hand, but she positioned herself between Leo and his comrades. "I'm warning you!"

"Wait! Don't!" Leo tugged her back. "It's ok. They're my . . . quest partners, or something. They won't hurt you. Or me. I promise. I know you have no reason to trust me, but –"

"I trust you."

"What? Oh. Ok." Leo felt like crap. He felt like a fake. He knew that the only reason Hazel trusted him was because of his face. He felt like he was wearing a mask, even though it was his real face. This was quite possibly the lowest thing he'd ever done. "I promise that I'll try to never take advantage of your trust. I'm sorry if I fail, but I –"

"It's alright, Sammy. I mean Leo," said Hazel, wincing at her own slip. "You bared your soul to me. I can see what sort of person you are. I'll help you if I can. But you don't need to do anything for me. There's nothing you can do for me anyways."

"I can take you away from here."

"Leo," said Thalia warningly.

"We have to at least try," snapped Leo.

Hazel's fingers tightened around his own, to the point where it was painful. Leo looked down at her to make sure she was alright.

"Do you really mean that?" she whispered. "Could I really have . . . a second chance?"

"I really mean it," promised Leo. "I will do everything in my power to get you out of here."

"And . . . after that . . . would I be with you?" asked Hazel tentatively.

Leo looked at the rest of the team, uncertain because of the Greek-Roman rivalry thing. Their mixed reactions were not at all helpful. Percy was nodded encouragingly, while Annabeth was frantically shaking her head. Jason shrugged. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Yes," Leo told her. "We might not always be able to physically be together, but we'll be friends forever. And whenever you need me, I'll do everything I can to be right there with you. I promise."

"Could you be anymore sappy, Valdez?" asked Thalia.

"Shut up, Thalia," said Leo angrily.

Hazel started. "Valdez?"

"My last name," Leo told her. "I wasn't lying to you before. I just didn't introduce myself properly. I'm Leo Valdez. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Hazel Levesque," Hazel told him, still looking a bit shocked and troubled.

"And these people with me are the famous Percy Jackson, his scary girlfriend Annabeth –"

"Leo," said Annabeth warningly.

"Well when you're making that face at me, what else am I supposed to call you? Then we've got the Wonder Twins, Thalia and Jason, and Percy's dog, Mrs. O'Leary –"

"You have a hellhound named Mrs. O'Leary?" asked Hazel, looking at Percy with something very close to horror.

"Yes. But I didn't name her that. It's a long story," said Percy as he pulled Nico off his hellhound's back.

"And last, but not least . . . your brother. Nico di Angelo," said Leo, his voice softening a little bit. "He's the one we need your help with."

"My brother?" asked Hazel, her voice tinged with wonder. "I have a brother?"

She moved forward, dragging Leo with her since their hands were still clasped. Her eyes were bright as she knelt beside Nico. Then she frowned. "What's wrong with him?"

"Tell her," said Leo to Percy, because this was more their secret than his, and he wasn't sure if him revealing it would cause him to be metaphorically stepping on anyone's toes. "She needs to know."

Percy pulled up Nico's shirt to reveal the stone scarab in Nico's chest. "His soul is trapped in that scarab. We were hoping you could call it out of there and back into his body."

Hazel looked doubtful. "I've never done anything like that."

"But will you try?" asked Percy. "Please."

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," said Leo, suddenly seeing a downside to this plan. "What if her soul ends up getting stuck in that scarab too?"

"There's got to be a limit to how many souls can be stuck in one rock," said Thalia.

"Theoretically, that's right, but in actuality, it's the crystalline structure that contains the soul," said Leo.

"And that means?"

"One molecule equals housing for one soul," explained Leo. "This scarab is probably big enough to house every soul we passed to get here. Hazel, you don't have to do this –"

"I want to," said Hazel. "He's my brother. But even if he wasn't, I'd still have to at least try and help him."

Leo felt his eyes water. There wasn't much he could say to that without being a hypocrite. But this definitely reinforced his belief that Hazel really did not belong down here. "If you're sure. Just remember, you can stop trying at any time. And don't take any unnecessary risks. If you feel like it's too dangerous, stop immediately. And –"

"She gets it, Leo," said Thalia, trying to pull Leo away, but Hazel tightened her grip on Leo's hand.

"If you don't mind . . . stay with me?" requested Hazel.

"Of course," promised Leo. He squeezed her hand encouragingly. "I'll be right beside you the whole time."

Hazel smiled. Then she turned her attention back to Nico. Laying cradled in Percy's arms like that, it looked more like he was sleeping than lying there soulless and pretty much dead.

"I'm not quite sure what to do," admitted Hazel. "Maybe if I just . . ." She laid her hand against the scarab and closed her eyes, in deep concentration. Moments later, an eerie light began glowing around her.

"Uh, are you ok?" asked Leo.

Hazel didn't answer.

"Hazel?" he asked again, urgently.

"Maybe you shouldn't interrupt her? It might make things worse," said Annabeth.

"But what if something's gone wrong? What if she needs our help?" demanded Leo.

"Either way, it's a risk," said Percy. He looked more tormented than Leo had ever seen him before. Leo understood why. Nico was his friend too. He wasn't as close to the kid as Percy was, but he didn't have so many friends that he could afford to lose any of them. But on the other hand, Hazel was putting her soul on the line for this. She could end up hurting herself, or getting trapped in the scarab too.

"If something's wrong, or something happens to her, it can't be any worse than what's happened to her already," pointed out Thalia. "Even if she gets trapped in the scarab, Leo, even if her soul gets destroyed, do you think it's really worse than the fate she has here?"

"I don't know!"

"What could be worse than this, except Punishment?" asked Annabeth.

"Hazel doesn't need to find out!"

"If we interrupt her it really might make things worse," said Percy. "I think we should trust her to know when to pull back if something goes wrong. She knows her powers best."

They all had valid points, much as Leo hated to admit it.

A hand fell to rest on his shoulder. Leo started and looked up at Jason.

"Sometimes waiting while your comrades are taking risks is harder than taking the risks yourself." Jason spoke like someone who had plenty of experience with this.

Leo looked away from him and back at Hazel, feeling stupid and helpless. "This sucks."

* * *

"Anubis! Percy!" Nico didn't know how long he'd been screaming when he finally got an answer. "Sadie! Carter! Father! Someone? Anyone?"

"Nico?" asked an unfamiliar voice.

Nico spun and saw that he was no longer alone in the void. A pretty African American girl in clothes that were old-fashioned by modern standards, but that looked pretty normal to him, was standing right there. She looked around his age, but her eyes . . . they held so much sadness. And she seemed familiar somehow, though Nico was sure they'd never met.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm . . . I'm Hazel," the girl said. "I'm your half-sister."

"Sister?" asked Nico in disbelief. But somehow that felt right. He knew instinctively that she was telling the truth. That Hazel was a daughter of Hades. Or maybe Pluto. Something seemed different about her, at her core, the same way Jason seemed different from Thalia.

"What . . . how . . ." Nico didn't even know where to start asking questions.

"Your friends came and found me. They knew I could help bring you back. This place is really horrible. Even worse than where I was." Hazel shivered and offered Nico her hand. "Come on. Let's go."

Nico tried to take her hand, but somehow couldn't move. He was still shellshocked by this revelation. He had a sister. He had family again. Real family. Even if she was just his half-sister, she was still his sister. He wanted more than anything to take her hand and never let go, but somehow his arm wasn't obeying him.

"I . . . I'm . . ."

"It's alright," said Hazel. "I can help you get back. Please, trust me."

His hand, no, his entire arm shook as he slowly raised it and tried to reach for Hazel. Realizing he needed a little more help, Hazel reached out too, a little over halfway, and took his hand in her own.

"Come on," she said, giving him a smile that was a little bit sad, but at the same time hopeful. "Let's get you home."

* * *

AN: So far I am in love with college. My roommate is nice and I haven't had to do as much work as I thought I'd have to, yet at least, which is how I was able to update again faster than I thought. It's still early, and I'll probably have more work to do later in the semester, so I'm taking advantage and writing while I can. So far everything seems good, and I'm having lots of fun!

I meant to say this in my last AN, but I forgot: Yes, the full on Swayze reference was from Supernatural. I love that show!

And confession: I haven't actually played Bioshock Infinite yet. It was just recommended to me recently, so I was researching it on YouTube and found some of the music from it. And demonstrations of the magic in it. The Murder of Crows thing alone is enough to get that game from banned in my parents' house, since my mom is very against violent videogames. But as they say, there's a time and a place for everything, and that's college, where I conveniently am right now! So I'll be playing it soon. That and Borderlands.

Next update will be as soon as I can write it. Laters!


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